Marching Band: Les Miserables
by quidditchseasonprotection
Summary: Draco Malfoy and a few others from Hogwarts are forced to join the Marching Band. What, exactly, is it about marching banders that make them so crazy, anyway? Malfoy doesn't know and he wants out. Rated T for swearing and innuendos. That's just the band
1. Marching Band

**A/N: I wanted to write a story about marching band, and so here it is...well,not really, but I'm started. I was getting pissed with everyone listing percussion generically as 'the percussion' or 'the drums' so I went more in depth to that, although I did retain Draco Malfoy playing clarinet... All the Transformers references are because my two friends were helping me write this and they are obsessed with Transformers. We own all names you don't recognize from Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling owns all Harry Potter related stuff. And if ur from Greendale and/or Waukesha North... well just skip the part where we bash you.**

This is my lovely list of people in the Marching Band of the story (AKA Cast)

Most people w/ last names are from Harry Potter except David G.

**Flutes**

Renee

Sally

Brianna

Finola

Brigitte

Emily

Andria

**Piccolos**

Maggie

Hermione Granger

**Clarinets**

Holly

Chloe

Rachel

Caitlin

Katie

Tara

Draco Malfoy

**Bass Clarinet**

Savannah

**Soprano Sax**

Katie

**Alto Saxes**

Adam M.

Andrew

Jordan

Natalie

Will

David T.

**Tenor Saxes**

Cole

Percy Weasley

**Trumpets**

Martha

Tyler

Josh

Brighin

Michael Francke

Beth

Taylor

Ginny Weasley

**French Horns**

Sarah

Tess

Abby

**Trombones**

Summer

Nathan

Zach

**Baritones**

Kia

Nikki

Brenden

Kevin

**Tubas**

Austin

Adam P.

Tony

Gary

Harry Potter

**Frontline**

Adria

Molly

Rachel

Marrae

Morgan V.

Laura

Nathan

*Nathan's keyboard* Buzzsaw

**Snares**

David The Douche Gilbertson

Gabe

June

Sarah

Nerm

Fred Weasley

George Weasley

**Quads**

Stella

The Twinsies

*Jakey

*Matt

**Basses**

Hannah

Katie

Alex

Craig

Dan

**Cymbals**

Carrissa

Jarid

Michael

Tim

Vika

**Triangle**  
Ron Weasley

**Guitar**

Jack

*Actual Guitar* Laserbeak

**Drum Majors**

Carley

Morgan R.

Summer

**Color Guard**

Kat

Sarah

Stephanie

Jazzi

Kaleena

Anna

Stormi

Liz

Luna Lovegood

**Staff**

Halloway

Steve

Kylo

Sean

Dave

Eve

Dumbledore

**Equipment**

Neville Longbottom

(he failed at Marching… and playing all instruments….even while not marching)

*Speakers* Frenzy and Rumble

*Podium* Soundwave

*Small Podium/Stairs* Ejector

*Transport Truck* Shadow Optimus Prime


	2. Un Momento!

**A/N: So, sorry if the Spanish sucks, we were using Google Translate. And yeah, I'm aware nothing happens in this chapter really. It's like 3:50 A.M. and we're hyped on Internet videos, OneRepublic, and Jarid;)**

**Chapter 1: In Which Something Exciting Doesn't Quite Happen Yet  
**

Exams had just ended, and Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, and Luna were enjoying a warm summer day underneath their favorite tree, when Percy ran up to them, chest heaving. They sat there staring at him for a moment as he doubled over, wheezing, waving a hand in the air. It seemed that the Spanish-speaking-only spell that Flint had cast on him hadn't worn off yet. The Weasley was shouting, "_Un momento! Un momento_!"

The poor sap never had a chance. Not a second later he was bowled over by his brothers, Fred and George. The twins didn't look happy. Percy…well they weren't sure what he looked like – his face was stuck in the ground…and it seemed to be gurgling. Was that mud his head had landed in?

"Hey,hey guys!" the twins demanded attention simultaneously.

While Neville looked worriedly at Percy, everyone else was staring raptly at Fred and George.

"What?" asked Harry a little uneasily.

Fred informed with a shake of his head, "Dumbledore wants to see us."

"In London," interjected George.

Fred raised his voice over his brother's, "At the Empire State building!"

Hermione's brows bunched together. She opened her mouth then closed it a few times. She shook her head.

"Please, Fred," she pleaded, "please tell me you are not that stupid. I _need_ to know this."

Fred looked confused, "What?"

George glared at Fred, punching him in the arm, "The Empire State building is in America, you bloody noob!"

"Then where in hell did Dumbledore tell us to meet?"

Percy seemed to have finally fought his way from the mud. He declared with vehemence, "_Me dejaste morir!_" He was religiously ignored. No one could understand him anyway.

George gave an exasperated exhale before gesturing to the group under the tree. The group gathered their stuff together and stood looking expectantly at George. George turned on his heel dragging Fred after him. He called over his shoulder, "Just follow me alright?" The group followed, stopping only to grab brooms from the shed.

Percy raced after them muttering, "_Estupido…inutil…Yo hara _terminan_ ellos!"_

At the entrance to the castle, a figure lolling lazily on a broomstick sat up. "Took you long enough!" Draco Malfoy lazily drawled, adjusting his grip on the broomstick.

"Why'd you wait if you didn't want to go with us?" Harry asked waspishly.

"Maybe I was feeling disgustingly kind and decided to wait for you lower life forms." Malfoy sneered.

"Or maybe – and this is just a shot in the dark here – but maybe you didn't know the way and _had _to wait or you'd get lost and then you'd be screwed, wouldn't you?" Ron retorted.

Malfoy's pale cheeks tinged slightly pink "That's not true. I could've left anytime! I could fly there with my eyes closed. If you know where we're going, prove it, 'cause I bet you don't know!" He sat defiantly with his arms crossed over his chest.

Fred yawned "What a subtle way to try to find out where we're going, git. If you knew where we were headed, you wouldn't have tried to get us to say."

Percy jogged up to them. While he was wrestling with his broomstick, George turned to the collective group and announced:

"We're all here; let's go!" Without waiting, he took off, leaving everyone else to follow.

They followed him through the England countryside. Soon, they couldn't even see Hogwarts anymore. Five minutes later, they landed behind a building and dismounted. As they were rapidly storing their brooms inside Hermione's bottomless bag, George pointed to the alley that opened onto a sunny area. "That's where we're headed. Whatever it's called."

Hermione pursed her lips. "Piccadilly Circus."

George shrugged to indicate that it didn't matter.

"Hey, people, get a move on!" Ginny called from the front of the alley. Beside her, Percy and Neville nodded vigorously.

"_Rapido, por favor, rapido._"

Draco fell into step beside Harry. "You know what this is about?"

Harry glanced sideways at him. "Hell if I know. I thought you knew, since you're a _prefect_ and all."

Malfoy detected the slight note of jealousy and curled his lip. "Wish you were good enough to be one, Potter? Well, you're not. And as for the reason, it's probably because you've done something again that I've been blamed for."

Harry opened his mouth to snap back, but before he could, they exited the alley and almost immediately a wind blew them down the street, and into an open doorway. The door shut behind them, and they heard locks click. Peering into the darkness, Ron muttered

"What kind of bullshit was that?"

A voice came out of the darkness. "This 'bullshit' has to do with your graduating from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."


	3. Hermione fails an exam

**A/N: So, yeah, I think I forgot to do this on my last chapter, but I had it on the first one, but anyway, here it goes: I do not own anything related to Harry Potter. I do own all names you do not recognize from Harry Potter, and all the Marching Band stuff. It's not the middle of the night anymore, and my two friends are still helping me write, so thx to them.**

**Chapter 2: Hermione Fails an Exam  
**

"This 'bullshit' has to do with your graduating from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry" Dumbledore must've performed a silent spell, because lights flickered to life, illuminating an abandoned office building. Dumbledore sat behind a large desk in one corner of the room.

Ron paled and backed up a few paces, hastily muttering "Sorry, sir. I didn't mean to say that. It was just a slip of the tongue."

Dumbledore looked at him. "Sit down. All of you." There were several straight backed wooden chairs surrounding the desk. They obeyed, sliding into the chairs quietly. Although he didn't sound mad, there was a slight hint of it in his eyes. Dumbledore turned. "Minerva? Severus?" Out of the shadows swept Professors McGonagall and Snape.

McGonagall looked more imperious than usual, and when she spoke, her voice was fierce. "Do you know why you are here?"

Hermione and Percy shrank back in their seats. "No-no" Hermione stammered

"_Ni idea_" Percy agreed quickly. The teachers stared at him.

"Anyway, this is about your exams." Dumbledore said.

"And?" replied everyone simultaneously

"You all FAIL!"

**BANG! **

"Damn, what the heck was that!" Ron exclaimed. Everyone turned to stare at Hermione's sprawled form. Percy looked murderous at Ron's word choice, but didn't say anything about it.

"She fainted, obviously, you dim-wit." Malfoy scoffed.

"I know that!" Ron said, highly affronted.

"What do you mean we failed all our exams?" Harry asked, dumbstruck. If he flunked out of Hogwarts, he'd have to go back to the Dursley's.

"Not _all _your exams, just one in each case. Well, in _most _cases, anyway," Dumbledore cast a meaningful glance at the twins.

"So, we could just take a makeup exam." Luna proposed serenely.

"Yeah!" Neville agreed

"Longbottom, shut the hell up! You are an epic fail at life!" Snape thundered at him. Neville cowered behind the twins, who hadn't moved at all during the whole ordeal.

"Well, normally, as your Heads of House, we would allow you to retake your exam, because we are aware that you are much smarter than your exam grades indicate. However, Professor Dumbledore has given us an alternate plan that will allow you to make up the credit you lost, and learn to cooperate with each other and total strangers." McGonagall explained, and the steel in her voice told them they didn't have a choice one way or the other.

They all looked at Dumbledore, who steepled his fingers and announced: "At Muggle schools, many of them have things called Marching Bands."

"What's that?" Fred interjected.

"A Marching Band is a group of people who play musical instruments and march in step and usually they march whole shows at competitions as well." Dumbledore said, in a pleasant tone.

"Why does this concern us?" George added

Dumbledore sat back and beamed. "Well, now I'm very glad you asked that question, Mr. Weasley! It concerns you because I am sending all of you to join a Marching Band!"

Everyone's mouths hung open in shock. "A – a Marching Band?" Harry stuttered. "But we don't know anything about marching!"

"I know," Dumbledore continued to smile. "That is why I am sending you all to Band Camp! To learn to march in general, as well as marching an entire show."

"Band camp?" Ginny asked, the first thing she'd said since they arrived in the building.

"In America," Dumbledore confirmed.

"In America?" Fred and George echoed in unison.

"In Wisconsin," Dumbledore said pleasantly. Then, before anyone could repeat that statement, he added "At SP High School."

"I think it sounds absolutely marvelous!" Luna exclaimed.

Ginny nodded, agreeing. "It does sound kind of fun," she said hesitantly. She looked to Dumbledore "When do we leave?"

"Why, right away, of course!" Dumbledore sounded surprised. "I've arranged a Portkey." He produced a battered tin can. "It leaves in five minutes. Everyone gather round." Everyone moved closer and touched it. As they were walking, Malfoy accidentally-on-purpose kicked Hermione in the stomach and she came to with a gasp.

She sat up, holding her head. "What happened? Dumbledore said we'd all failed an exam…" Hermione broke off, her face an unattractive grayish color. "That can't be true," she whispered grabbing a fistful of Harry's robes and looking up at him.

Harry shrugged uncomfortably "Well, it is."

Hermione started to cry.

"Shut up, Mud-Blood!" Malfoy snapped.

"20 points from Slytherin for calling Hermione 'Mud-Blood!'" McGonagall ordered.

Harry and Ron dragged a still sobbing Hermione up and laid her hand on the Portkey.

Dumbledore turned to leave, as did McGonagall and Snape. "There will be people waiting for you when you arrive." Snape said silkily. "You miss them, you're stuck." Without another word, he and McGonagall swept out the door.

"What exams did we fail, anyway?" Ron called.

Dumbledore reached into his robes and brought out a folded sheet of paper. "Suffice it to say you've all failed Divination and/or Ancient Runes." He turned and left.

"He's crazy mad." Malfoy muttered.

A split second later, they all felt a sharp tug. They closed their eyes, waiting for the spinning to stop. When they opened them, they just had time to register the river before they fell into it "Help!" they screamed as the current swept them away


	4. Son TheD and The Clarinet

**A/N: So, here's Chapter 3. It's a little longer and took me awhile, but I promised my bestie, Merlander01, that it would be up yesterday, so here it is! By the way, I realized today that I had started typing in present tense and first person (Draco's POV), and I went back and fixed, but if I missed something, I'm sorry. I'm going to murder somebody with a knife for cancelling pep band tonight... anyway, just read.**

**Chapter 3: The River, the Ninjas, and a load of random crap**

They somersaulted about half a mile down the river before they noticed people running on top the water. Three people dived in and somehow rescued Draco, Ron, and Harry. When they reached dry land Draco saw how oddly their rescuers dressed. They were wearing white bib overalls under blue shirts that had green graphics containing a snare drum and the letters SDL. When one of them turned around, Draco noticed it said:

Play Hard...

Sauk Drumline

Snares

Is It In You?

One of the sleeves had the words Son Thed printed on it. He could hear Ron and Harry whispering about it too, so he listened in.

"What do you think Son Thed is?" Harry whispered nervously

"Maybe it's their organization?" Ron whispered back.

"Like a Dark Wizard organization?" Harry hissed. "Because that's probably what they are." His hand inched toward the inside pocket where he kept his wand.

"You think?" Ron looked scared.

To tell the truth, Draco was getting scared too, but he decided not to show it and asked the tall dark-haired guy "So what the hell is Son Thed? Is that your like group or something? Because if it is, they'll be sorry if they hurt me. My dad is very powerful at the Ministry of Magic, and anything happens to me, you're dead!"

All three of their rescuers turned and stared at him. Finally, one of them spoke. , "Yeah, it's S On The D, not Son Thed, asshole. And we can make your life a living hell, and your dad won't ever know. Or maybe-" He broke off, unsure. He looked back at the even taller, slimmer guy behind him. "Is he?" he inquired.

The second guy consulted a clipboard that had been clipped to his jeans. A smirk was on his face as he said "No, you don't have power. He's got Holly."

The first guy whistled softly "I feel sorry for you – if she hates you, that is. Which I know she does, so you're screwed." he said to Draco, who narrowed his eyes, but didn't say anything. He wasn't afraid of any dumb Muggle girl.

The guy seemed to read his thoughts. "She might not have wizard magic, but she's got her own kind of magic. She _will_ get you to do what she wants." He turned and started to walk toward Harry and Ron, then turned back and said "I'm June, by the way."

Draco just stared. _June? What a girl's name. Icould take on every single one of the people in this Marching Band thingy without breaking a sweat. _Behind him, he could hear the weasel that only spoke Spanish.

"_Que?"_ he was shouting over and over again. Two girls were dragging him along by the armpits, looking pissed.

"Oh my God," the one of the girls complained, flicking her blond hair out of her eyes. "Can he only say one word?"

The second girl let go and Draco saw it was a guy, not a girl. "Maybe he's trying to impress us with his amazing language skills!" he suggested. The girl just stared at him. "Come on, Caitlin, it was funny! It was funny, right? Right?" he said, looking to the rest of the group. They all avoided his eyes and pretended like they didn't hear him.

"So, I take it that's what's-his-face - Percy?" June asked Caitlin.

"Yeah. He just keeps saying 'What the...?' in Spanish over and over and then Michael made lame jokes all the way upriver and Percy was so heavy and now my elaborate hairdo is just completely ruined and I don't even know where the hell Holly and Carrissa are." Caitlin whined to June.

"Oh, yes." June nodded mock seriously "We wouldn't want Gabe to see your messed up hair."

Caitlin glared at him. "Shut up, _Kevin_."

June grinned and and shook his head. "Low blow."

Michael raced up beside them. "Hey, guess what. They're coming." He pointed at a spot some hundred yards downriver, and Draco turned to see Ginny, Luna, Hermione, Fred, and George running towards them. Another girl in white bib overalls and a blue and green shirt was carrying Neville. He appeared to be unconscious. Something tickled the back of his neck. He turned, but there was nothing there.

"So..." a voice said in his right ear. Draco yelped and whipped around so fast his neck cracked. A girl with blue eyes and brunette hair was giving him the once-over. He stood up straighter, knowing that made him look taller, and in turn, more handsome and powerful. This girl would fall for him immediately. She opened her mouth to speak and Draco thought she would say something like "_Oh my gosh! You should definitely lead this Marching Band thing! You're so handsome and capable and would you please date me?" _Instead, she said "This is what I have to deal with for the next 4 1/2 months?"

Draco took a couple steps away, shocked. What was wrong with her? He started to make a scathing reply, but the 3rd guy who had rescued him, Potter, and the Weasel cut her off. "Hey, um, Kylo said he was only gonna hold the bus for another ten minutes and that was approximately seven minutes ago."

The second guy (**remember, with the clipboard who was super tall and slim?) **nodded and turned to the girl who hadn't been impressed by Draco's hotness. "Let's get them to the bus Holly."

Holly turned and surveyed the pathetic looking group. "Right. Okay, Carrissa-"

The girl carrying Neville shook her short dark hair out of her eyes and said "What?"

"You guys go with Jarid and I'll take Draco, Harry, and the twins with Craig." As she spoke, the third guy, whose shirt back said Cymbals instead of Snares, waved at them and took off upriver, Carrissa and most of the group following behind.

Draco regarded the girl. So this was Holly. She looked a little tougher than most, but he was confident it was something he could totally handle with his normal charm. He strode up to her. "I can lead the rest of these... people." he told her with a careless wave at the remaining members of the group.

She raised her eyebrows. "Really? Because I'm pretty sure I just assigned Craig to that job, on the ground that he ACTUALLY KNOWS WHERE HE'S GOING!"

Craig put up his hands. "Whoa. I've got this. No need to get upset over it, Hol." He gave the group what was probably meant to be a reassuring look. "Let's just go." Without another word he took off in the direction that Jarid and the rest of the group had gone. Harry, Holly, and the twin Weasels took off too, leaving Draco behind.

"Wait up!" he called running after them. As they ran, he noticed that it was pretty warm out, so it must be summer here, and not winter. Then he shook himself. It was America, after all. Not that much different from Britain.

After a couple minutes, they came up on a bus. As Harry and Draco pulled themselves onto it, panting, another guy in an SDL shirt, although this time with jeans, blocked their way. "What do you think you're doing?" he asked, leaning over. He was wearing a red plaid backpack as well.

"It's okay, Kylo." Craig said, barely breathing hard at all, even though they had just run like a mile and a half. "They're part of the group."

Kylo raised his eyebrows. "Pathetic." he murmured, sliding into the driver's seat and turning on the bus. He looked back at the mostly dry assembled group on the bus. "Right we'll be there in fifteen minutes. Hang on!" he slammed on the gas, sending the bus lurching down the road, throwing everyone (well, everyone from Hogwarts, anyway) into the aisle. Draco stumbled right into Holly's arms. She pushed him into a seat and sat down across the aisle from him, next to Carrissa, who had thrown Neville in the back next to Ron.

Fred and George poked their heads over the top of Draco's seat. "Hey, what are we, you know, playing, anyway?" he asked Carrissa. Carrissa turned and called across the bus "Craiggo, I want you your clipboard!" Three seconds later, she's smoothed a piece of paper on the clipboard and said "Wait, let me look..."

"Give it to me!" Holly snatched it out of her hands. "I'll read it!" She cleared her throat and began "Let's see, um, Hermione is playing piccolo-"

Hermione's jaw dropped. "I never told anyone I played that!"

Carrissa smirked "Oh, the Marching Band has its ways..."

"Ron, you're playing triangle..."

"That's important, right?" Ron asked.

"Sure." Holly nodded uncovincingly but Ron seemed satisfied.

"Harry is playing tuba..."

"HONK HONK, POTTER!" Malfoy turned and yelled at him. He blushed beet red and sinks down in his seat.

"Luna, you'll be in the Colorguard."

"I'll have to check and make sure there aren't nargles hiding in the flags." Luna said, looking out the window.

"Ginny, you're playing trumpet..."

"Brilliant!" she beamed. "I've been practicing!"

"Percy, you'll be playing tenor sax..."

"_Que?_" he asked again.

"Fred and George, you'll be doing snare..."

"Bloody awesome!" they exclaimed, high-fiving.

"We really needed more of those.." Holly muttered, rolling her eyes at the ceiling. "Neville, you're equipment, because you fail at life..."

Neville, who had woken up, just nodded sadly.

"And Malfoy, you'll be doing clarinet!" she finished.

"Clarinet!" he shrieked. "CLARINET!"

"That's my section." she said. "I'm your 'mentor', so you are kind of required to be in my section."

"Ohhhh..." he moaned, just as the bus jerked to a stop, throwing them (again, everyone from Hogwarts) all forward.

"We're here!" Kylo announced.

Draco looked out the window and barely saw the school before he sunk into a dead faint.

**A/N: So, just to review, because I was _writing _this and I was having trouble keeping the three guys who rescued Harry, Ron, and Malfoy straight, I'm going to go over it: The first guy that was talkin' bout SonTheD is June, the second guy with the clipboard is Craig, and the third guy who has exactly one line is Jarid. Ok, hope that clears things up if you were confused. This is going to be important for later.**


	5. The Colors of the Miserable

**A/N: This chapter is kind of long, and not interesting, but I had to put it in for a sense of the room, the basics of marching a show, and some of the more major characters. Pep band finally last night! I'd like to thank Dan for his (unsuccessful) efforts in trying to open my water bottle. I'd also like to thank Merlander01 for getting all of my looks during pep band. This makes it possible to carry on a conversation. I'm not feeling too well, probably because I decided to chug a bottle of Mountain Dew during History today... but here is Chapter 4. Also, not all official chapter titles match the unofficial ones, in case you were wondering.**

**Chapter 4: Red, White, and Blue - The Colors of the Miserable.**

Draco opened his eyes. He had had a terrible dream that he had failed an exam, and then Dumbledore had sent him to America to be in a Marching Band and a crazy chick had told him he played clarinet... what a nightmare!

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" somebody said above him. He looked up and saw Holly. In a flash, it all came flooding back. It wasn't a dream. This was _real. _"You went down kind of hard." she continued. "Are you okay?"

Draco sat up, his head spinning. He ran a hand through his hair, trying in vain to fix it. "Yeah, I'm fine." he pronounced.

Holly smiled slowly. "Good, because we have a lot to do today." As she spoke, she pulled him to his feet. "We have to get your number, your reed, your clarinet, your drills, your 'friends' for those drills, your music, your uniform, and, of course, a tour."

"A tour?" he repeated. She nodded. "All right." He agreed, thinking it couldn't take that long. "Lead the way. But I swear, if I get injured..."

"I'll keep that in mind." Pulling him off the bus, and up the sidewalk, he became aware that people were staring at him and whispering. He raised a hand to flick them off, but Holly pulled his arm down and drug him straight up to two guys who seemed to be waiting for them.

"Hey." the first guy, who looked like a stereotypical Californian surfer, with golden blond hair, blue eyes, and a tall, thin yet nice body, nodded.

"Hey, hey." the second guy, who looked like he was at least 6'2'' nodded as well. He pulled up his sagging jeans. "Is this one of the twins we're waiting for?"

"Nope." Holly shook her head. "This is Draco Malfoy, freshman clarinetist. And, by the way," she added, looking them up and down. "Last time I checked, Jakey, you were a quad. Matt too. The twins are snares, so doesn't that make them under David and Gabe's domain?"

"Well, yeah, technically." Jakey said, tilting his head to one side. "But we're the Twinsies, for Goddamn sake, so we have to check out competition, don't we?"

"Don't worry. The twins will never hold a candle to you guys." Carrissa walked up to them, Neville in tow. "Can you believe this ass? He asked me if he could go home because he doesn't like marching." She shook Neville. "HE DOESN'T LIKE MARCHING!" she yelled. "There's a murder up tonight!"

Holly put a hand on her arm. "Unfortunately, that won't be needed. He's new, so it doesn't count. But we can definitely get our biology teacher, if you want."

Carrissa narrowed her eyes. "I've been waiting for the go-ahead for six months, but David said-"

Holly waved her away. "Go ahead. David gets pissed, he can take it up with me. Take Jakey and Nerm. And probably Alex, too, come to think of it. He'll be useful."

Draco wasn't sure if he was hearing correctly. "You're just going to go out and kill a teacher tonight? You think no one's going to notice?" He shook his head, thinking _Idiots. They'll be caught in two minutes and then I'll be associated with people who murder other people and can't even get away with it, unlike me, who can._

He didn't see her hand until it connected with his face. His head snapped back, his hand going to his face. "The Marching Band can murder anybody who gets in their way and make it look like we weren't ever involved... we're _very _good. We've done over 200 murders so far... most of them from Waukesha North and Greendale, but a couple of marching band unbelievers as well. In fact, we were behind that murder of that corrupt Senator, Albert Fall." Carrissa snapped.

"Ouch." he muttered, glaring at her. This earned him a slap on the other cheek. Now his whole face was stinging. He raised his gaze to hers but looked away before he could get slapped again

"Son of a bitch." Carrissa said matter-of-factly. Neville cowered behind Jakey and Matt, but Carrissa yanked him out by the arm. "You say one thing out of line..." she left the threat dangling.

"I'll slit your throat." Holly finished before turning to the Twinsies. "Could you find Craig for me please? He's got the clipboard which has all that important to life information on it I need."

Matt nodded, his sun-streaked blond hair bouncing a little. "Sure. And while we're at it why don't we just go get something from Culver's and a private changing room and an assistant, too?"

"Ha ha, very funny. I've got an assistant. A pathetic one, but an assistant nonetheless." She turned to Draco. "Let's start the tour, shall we?"

The first thing Draco noticed about the school was that it was all one story. And pretty small, as schools went. Inside the band room door (which was propped open with a drumstick) several people were gathered in small groups talking. She led him past the people, pointing things out as they went. "That's Halloway's office." she started, pointing at a door covered in signs. "Those are our trophies." she said proudly. Draco looked at shelf after shelf covered in trophies and pictures. "These are the slots for instruments." she gestured at the slots lining the back wall, ranging from tiny to ridiculously huge. "Those are the timps that you don't put music on." Draco's leg got scraped against one of the giant covered drums.

"Holly, I have this clarinet. What should I do with it?" a guy in a plaid shirt held a black case out to her.

"Thanks, Tyler. Just give it to Malfoy here. He'll get it to his slot."

Tyler thrust the case into Draco's arms. "Um, what the hell am I supposed to do with _this_?" Draco asked scathingly. Tyler shrugged.

"You." Holly said sweetly. "Will put it in your slot. Now."

Draco smirked, the shock of waking up finally wearing off. "I don't think so. Why don't you just send it right back to wherever you got it from. I won't be staying, so you won't need it." In a moment of pure spite, he flung it at her. It never made it.

In a flash, he was flat on his back, pinned beneath a heavy body. A drumstick was being held to his throat, cutting of his ability to breathe. "What _the hell _do you think you're doing?" the guy growled, using his free arm to brush his light brown hair away from his bright blue eyes. His bangs just fell right back into his face. He rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Now, again, what were you doing to Holly?"

By this time, his wind pipe was getting so crushed by the drumstick he could barely breath, let alone talk. Plus, he was so scared he was pretty sure he'd shit his pants. "I...nothing..." he managed to splutter helplessly.

The guy pinned the drumstick even tighter against his throat and rand his thumb along one side. Suddenly, Draco could feel the point of a blade digging into his chin. Was this guy trying to slit his throat with a _knife_? Oh my God, these Marching Band guys were freaking insane. Somebody needed to call an insane asylum and have them all carted off to where they couldn't kill random innocent people anymore.

"Well?" the guy's eyes were practically slits.

"So...sorry..I...didn't...me...mean...it." he was going to black out any second. He could imagine the headline in the _Daily Prophet_. Malfoy Murdered by Marching Maniacs! it would read. Millions would flock to his funeral and weep over his precious body and something could be done about these freaks.

Suddenly, the pressure was gone. He rolled over onto his stomach, gasping and clutching his throat. After a few minutes, he could breathe somewhat normally, and he decided he was going to address this hideous breach of humanity. Looking around, he could see Holly and the crazy knife guy engaged in conversation. _Engaged in conversation?_ She obviously had a mental problem. "Hey, half dead guy over here if anyone cares." He waved a hand in the air.

Crazy Knife Guy glanced at him. "No one does." He turned right back around. "Tell me again why Carrissa is going out to murder a biology teacher? And why is there a freaky instrument-case-throwing weirdo trying to kill you?"

Draco pulled himself up using one of the timps **(which, by the way, don't _ever_ do)**. He tapped the guy on the shoulder. "Excuse me? You were the one trying to kill me."

"Why you little-" he started, whipping out a drumstick, but Holly stepped in front of him.

"Hold up, David!" she pried the drumstick from his hand. "There's no need to use the drumstick knives! First of all, I have know frickin' idea why he threw that case at my head, but he wasn't trying to kill me. I'm thinking that he was trying to be an asshole, and threw it to distract me so he could run. Which doesn't work, because the Marching Band can track anyone, anywhere. Second of all, Carrissa has been asking to kill the biology teacher since last November. And it's June now. So I thought we should get moving with it."

David shrugged, but he looked a little pissed. "Well... I guess it's okay... but I'm still in charge of the drumline! It's my place, so don't interfere with my drummers!"

"Really?" Holly said coolly. "I was under the impression that Steve and possibly Stella ran our drumline."

David turned red. "Shut up." he muttered, staring at the ground.

Holly laughed. "Take your knife back." She handed him the drumstick and he stalked off, probably to complain to someone. ***cough* Jack *cough***

"Where's my case?" Draco asked suspiciously.

"_Your_ case? I thought you didn't want it."

"I don't! But... did I hit you?"

She smiled. "Of course not. It's in your slot, silly!" She pointed at a slot, just below the one adorned with the sign that said Holly & Carrissa. "We are ninjas, you know. We have to have amazing reflexes."

"Um, maybe I shouldn't have thrown that case at you." Draco admitted.

She stared at him. "Did David cause you severe brain damage?"

"Maybe." He was eager to forget the whole thing. "Can we just finish the tour?"

"Yeah...sure." she blinked and turned away. "This is our costume/uniform room." She stopped in front of a heavy wooden door. "And the rest of it-" she waved a hand at the right **(if you walk in from outside. If you walk in from the hallway, it's the left.) **side of the room. "Is all percussion." she shrugged. "That's basically it."

"Okay... now what?" Malfoy cautiously asked.

"Drills and your number. Oh, and your uniform, but we'll get that last." She handed him a yellow packet of paper. It looked like a very confusing graph. "That's your drill." she explained. She touched one of the numbers. "Each number represents a person. The grid represents the field. Where the number is on each page indicates where the person is on the field on each move. To read it on the field, you turn it upside down. You're number 14. I think that's it."

"This is... never mind." he cut himself off. He didn't need to be suffocated by a drumstick again.

"Wise choice." she nodded gravely. "Let's get you fitted, shall we?"

In the uniform room, he met the rest of his fellow students. The twins were trying on hideous black shoes. Ron had a hat stuck down over his face. Hermione was fully outfitted in bib overalls and a jacket. Harry was wearing the same thing, except instead of the jacket, he was wearing a red shirt with a cumberbund. Draco started to snicker. "Nice oufit, Potter."

A lady sashayed up to him, her arms full of white bib overalls. "I'm glad you think so, because you'll be wearing the exact same thing!"

His jaw dropped open in shock. "I have to wear that!" he pointed at Harry.

The lady smiled. "Your shirt will be blue, though."

"But..but...but." he stammered.

"But nothing. Now go try on these overalls. They should fit." she smiled pleasantly as she said it, but the steel in her voice made it clear to Draco that she could take him down. Reluctantly, he slid his jeans off and pulled the overalls on. "Perfect!" the lady exclaimed. "Now for the shirt and jacket!"

As he was being fitted into an exceptionally tight shirt that didn't allow his chest to expand all the way, Holly poked a head in the door. "Draco, I've put your music in your slot. Practice it as soon as you're done here. Work Song is opener, Dreamed a Dream is our ballad, Master of the House is a drum solo and ensemble piece, so don't bother learning it, and One Day More is closer. We're doing _Les Misérables_ this year, in case you were wondering."

He put his head in his hands. _Figures_, he thought as the uniform lady made a particularly sharp jab with her pins. _I'm definitely part of the miserable._


	6. Douches aren't gay

**A/N: Yay, Chapter 4 is done too! I know it's all about David, and not really about band, but I wanted to put this in there because it's been bothering me since Tuesday. Also, there is a perfect song that should go under where Holly and Carrissa are talking about being Jakey's stalker, but I promised Merlander01 I would never speak of it again, so it stays out. Suffice it to say that it's a parody of The F.U.N. song from Spongebob. Again, I own nothing from Harry Potter, but I do own all names and things not from there. Also, Michael Francke is not from Harry Potter, but he wasn't on my last name list thing in chapter 1.**

**Chapter 5: He Smiles Sexily From Under His Hair**

From his vantage point on top of the chair (where the uniform lady was now pinning up his pants) Draco Malfoy had a perfect view of the entire Sauk Prairie High School Band room. But mainly, he could see the percussion section, since that was the direction he was facing. Three feet from him, Holly and Carrissa were in deep conversation.

"Did you get my message?" Holly asked Carrissa.

"I think so... the one about Craig and his crutches?" Carrissa replied.

"Yeah, that one. I couldn't believe it. I was like 'I will personally remove you from those crutches-'"

"Because I like you better on the floor!" they yelled in unison, cracking up. Draco just shook his head. He wondered if all Marching Banders had mental problems like everyone at this freaky school did. It was really starting to wear him down.

"And then he said 'If you know what I mean' and in my head I was like _Oooohhhh mmmmyyyy Goooooodddd'" _Holly continued, stretching out the last three syllables.

"Does that make you feel like you're not wearing any pants?" Carrissa asked suggestively.

Holly adamantly shook her head. "Don't speak of that."

Carrissa laughed. "I know. I'm not. By the way, I thought you were looking for Jakey. I see him." She pointed to where he was pulling down a set of quads from a shelf.

"No, you don't. And I already talked to him." Holly avoided Carrissa's gaze.

"_Stalker_." Carrissa hissed.

"Um, hello, _you _stalk him. Not me." Holly tapped Carrissa's head like maybe she had forgotten.

Draco got down off the chair, shedding his jacket and shirt as he went back to the uniform room. When he re-emerged, he could see that David Drumstick Knife had taken up residence at the drum set. He was playing a roll that never seemed to stop, only changing in volume and intensity. "I got fitted." he told Holly, trying to ignore the ongoing drum beat behind him.

"Good. Did you get the music out of your slot?" Holly barely glanced at him, before returning to her other conversation. "I was thinking maybe we could skip off one of the marching sectionals next week to drive up to Madison and get a few things."

"Actually, no, because I don't know how to play clarinet." Malfoy inserted himself into the conversation.

"Liar." Holly snapped.

"I am not!" Draco gasped. "Why would I lie about that?"

"Because you're ashamed to admit you've been playing clarinet since you were twelve."

He opened and closed his mouth a few times, but nothing came out. "How'd you know that?" he finally managed to squeak.

"The Marching Band knows all." Carrissa said in a mystical voice, in a dead-on (but unintentional) impression of Professor Trelawney.

"Practice. Now. Go." Holly turned Malfoy bodily around and pushed him in the direction of his slot.

"Um, one more question." he turned back. Behind Carrissa, David was still doing his ridiculously long roll. "Does he have mental problems?" he lowered his voice slightly, and indicated David.

Holly and Carrissa spun around. "_David Gilbertson_?" Holly asked incredously, watching David finish his roll and get up.

Carrissa just shrugged. "Don't ask, don't tell." she stated simply.

"Carrissa!" Holly smacked her arm. "He's not _gay_!"

"No." Carrissa admitted. "But he is a douche."

Holly nodded. "He's very deserving of that title." She said it with a note of pride in her voice, like it was a good thing.

All three of them watched David get a snare off the top shelf and put it on a stand.

"That's Snare _Six_." Holly whispered.

Malfoy scoffed. "It's just a drum."

Carrissa rounded on him. "It's not a drum. It's David's Snare, because David is a 6." She slapped him across the face. _Again._

Holly smiled like it was a private joke. She regarded David, who was now playing different complicated-looking rhythms with his awe-inspiring snare. "Definite douche."

They slowly gravitated towards where all the chairs were stacked at the front of the room, like they were trying to get rid of Draco. He moved right along with them. Carrissa gave him an irritated look, and he backed off, lest he get slapped for a fourth time. He did remain close enough to still be in the conversation, though.

"So, he doesn't have any mental conditions or anything?" Malfoy asked again.

Holly shook her head. "Nope. None that are going to make him go Flippy on you and murder you in the night with his drumstick knives. He won't rape you either."

Draco paled, thinking about it.

Holly rushed on to say. "I know that's what you were worried about. Now, don't worry, he's completely straight. He may have mild dislike for lowerclassmen, but he's only dangerous to enemies of the Marching Band. And he only crushes on girls."

Malfoy didn't believe any of the shit about not being dangerous. _He tried to murder me with a drumstick for Goddamn' sake! He's totally dangerous. Like, life-threatening dangerous!_ he wanted to scream at them, but he kept his mouth shut. He figured it would only earn him another round with a knife crushing his windpipe.

"Go practice, Malfoy. That's enough interrogation for now. You'll learn the rest soon enough." Carrissa sounded like she was a freakin' war veteran.

He scrunched up his face, mocking her. She started towards, him, but he turned and practically ran away. He looked back over his shoulder and his eyebrows raised at what he saw.

David, who was still playing snare, moved his gaze up. His head was still lowered toward the drum, so when he looked up, all you could see was his blue eyes covered by his bangs. He didn't think anyone else saw it, since Carrissa had his back to him and Holly was looking at Carrissa, but David gazed slowly at Holly and then smiled slow; sexily from under his hair.

Draco Malfoy couldn't get to a practice room fast enough.


	7. Snares With Sticks

**A/N: Invitational was great, chapter 6 is done, my life is awesome. Possible snow day this week:D**

**Chapter 6: Snares with sticks**

After seeing that look that David had given Holly, Draco Malfoy was a little hesitant to come out of the practice room he was currently holed up in. He'd been in there for just over 3 hours. At first, he just sat there and tried to get that image out of his head, but eventually he looked at the music, and started playing it. (Which proved to be far more effective at removing the image, because the music was pretty difficult.)

Sighing, he leaned back in his chair. He figured that by now David would be gone.

He stepped out of the practice room and looked around the band room. There were a couple people, but nobody he actually knew, so he figured he was safe. Of course, he wasn't.

He had barely taken two steps when he heard the deafening sound of drums. Right next to him. Screaming, he threw his hands over his face and crumpled to the ground. Suddenly, the playing cut off.

He sat up cautiously, still holding his hands in front of his face. Seven faces stared back at him, ranging from I'm-trying-not-to-laugh (Fred and George Weasley) to extremely pissed off. (David Gilbertson.) Every single one of them was wearing a snare drum.

David leaned over and yanked Malfoy up by his shirt. "Why do you keep getting in my way?" he hissed angrily.

"I ju-just- I me-mean- I wasn't trying..." Draco babbled nervously. As much as he hated to admit it, David Gilbertson _really _intimidated and impressed him.

"What did he do before?" Fred asked interestedly.

David glanced at the six people behind him. He let Draco go, and straightened up, grabbing a fallen drumstick.

"He threw an instrument case at someone." David said it in a conversational tone, but everyone still gasped and stared at Malfoy.

He glared at them and held up a hand. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. I was provoked."

One of the snare drummers pushed his glasses up and ran a hand through his shaggy blond hair. He studied Draco intently, but didn't say anything. Draco tried not to stare at his too-small olive green cargo pants. Normally he would've called attention to it, but he was afraid to try in this group.

"No excuse." the girl with honey-blond hair in a tight bun snapped curtly.

"You guys are really uptight." George commented. Draco figured that comment would get him pinned beneath a pile of angry snare drummers, but David Ice Princess (because, really, he needed some tearing down, even if it was in Malfoy's head) actually cracked a smile. It made him look so different. For a second, Draco actually believed he was an insanely good snare player who was basically harmless.

"We're not usually like this." David assured George. "It's just this unexplainable thing that happens around arrogant assholes who are in Slytherin."

The whole group laughed appreciatively, except Draco, who turned red. "I'll have you know, some of the greatest wizards of the age have come from Slytherin." He pulled himself up haughtily.

David, the twins, and Too-Small Pants faces went from amused to furious in about half a second. "Like Voldemort?" Too-Small Pants spat.

Draco flinched, and Pants laughed a hard, cruel laugh.

The other girl, the one with glossy white-blond hair, bright blue eyes, and pale pink lipgloss laid a hand on his arm. "It's okay, Gabe." she said softly. Gabe turned away.

"Sorry, Sarah." Gabe mumbled to his snare, tracing a finger along the rim.

Sarah smiled gently. "Don't apologize."

The first girl leveled her hard gaze at Malfoy. "But you should." She crossed her arms over her chest, daring him to defy her.

"Too true, Nerm. Too true." David also had his arms crossed over his chest, and was nodding.

Draco glanced around the group, looking for sympathy in his dilemma, but he was frustratingly alone. Then his eye caught on a dark head in the back of the group, blocked from his view by David and Gabe. _June. _He didn't think, not after June's Son TheD reaction, that he would be of any help, but he cast an appealing glance at him anyway.

June just smirked and shook his head. "Out of luck, Slytherin bitch." He threw a drumstick in the air, which David caught without ever taking his eyes off Malfoy.

Malfoy sneered. "I'm not a bitch, I'm a _guy. _So _technically_ wouldn't I be an asshole or something?"

David sneered right back, mocking him. "_Technically_, no. You're a girl. 99% of all clarinet players are girls. And that 1% is people in big orchestras, of which we are not." he continued, taking Draco's reply right out of his mouth. He removed a drumstick from the side of his drum and ran his finger along the edge.

Chills popped out on Draco's neck. "Okay, okay, I'm really sorry Gabe. And David." he added, as an afterthought. And he did kind of mean it. Obviously, he had hit a nerve with the wizards-of-Slytherin thing, and he couldn't really think of any good wizards anyway, besides himself and Professor Snape. But mostly, he said it to prevent getting attacked. For what probably would've been the fourth or fifth time. In six hours. Which was way too much.

"That's enough." David said, looking at the rest of the snares. "I've got other commitments I have to tend to."

The snares moved off in the direction of the Percussion Corner, removing snares and harnesses as they went. David didn't break eye contact with Malfoy until the other six snares and harnesses were sitting (or hanging) on the shelf. "You done?" he asked maliciously.

Draco nodded slowly. "Yeah."

David sheathed his drumsticks. "Better be." He walked off to put away his snare. He didn't glance back.

Something hit his right shoulder. "Sorry." the figure mumbled, trying to rush past, but they didn't get very far before he tripped over a timp. He landed sprawled on his back, a giant instrument case next to him. It was Harry Potter.

Harry's face was red as he scrambled to grab his glasses. He was still in his uniform, except he was wearing a black shirt instead of red, and he was also sporting a beret.

Malfoy snickered. "Did they change to black so people wouldn't be able to see you?" Harry's face drained of color. "Well, they failed, because your pants and face are white. And white glows in the dark. Or don't Muggle-raised wizards know that?"

Harry's face quickly regained color. It was getting redder by the second. Malfoy just laughed. At least there was still _one_ person he could lord his superiority over.

Harry picked up his tuba case, trying to pretend he hadn't heard.

Malfoy followed him right along to his slot at the other end of the room. He realized that he had a clarinet in his hand, and hastily stuffed into his slot. He didn't need Potter telling every one that Draco Malfoy actually played clarinet.

"Did anyone ever tell you that you look like a burnt tomato, with the black hair, the beret, and your red, round, basketball-shaped head?" Malfoy continued to taunt Harry, all his frustration coming out.

"Shut up, Malfoy. At least I'm not a hypocrite, like you and your family." Harry snapped, his face still red. He shoved the tuba into a slot.

"Oh, come on, Potter. Have a sense of humor. I'm just trying to make your life better. But you just better never go laser tagging. Your face and ass will glow in the light!" he threw out gleefully.

A hand clamped down on his wrist. "Wonderful!" a sugary sweet female voice purred. Draco spun to face Holly. "Then you'll love to accompany me, Carrissa, Percy, and the Twinisies on a Laser Tag excursion. Oh, and you're invited too, Harry." she added, glancing at Harry.

"I'd love to see it." Harry grinned.

Holly grinned right back. Malfoy felt like he was in some sort of pre-arranged setup. Like a trap.

"And, of course, you wear the White Hood of Stealth."

Yeah, a trap.


	8. The White Hood Of Stealth

**A/N: Finally, another chapter! We have no school today, cuz of protesting. (I'm a Wisconsinite, baby!) And guess what? We won the SuperBowl. (I have fun saying it, even if it happened almost two weeks ago.) At the end, when Holly is talking about getting in a car w/ June, it sounds better if you use his real (first and last) name. So insert it if you know it. Hey, by the way, Merlander01: Mason is Ginger Ale! I remembered in the middle of the night. Review please, people.**

**Chapter 7: The Moral of the Story is...?**

"The White Hood of Stealth?" Malfoy asked for the sixteenth time. He was sitting in the backseat of a van with Holly, Carrissa, Matt, Harry, and Percy. Jakey was driving.

"Yes, Malfoy." Holly answered, irritated. She never went into more detail than that, no matter how many times he asked.

Malfoy looked out the window. They were driving past a gas station. Mobil.

He had no idea where they were going. He had asked Matt when he was shoving him into the van, and Matt had looked at Holly. Holly didn't even seem to notice them, though, and Matt had just pushed him into the backseat and buckled his seat belt. (_Way_ too tightly.)

After he had been buckled in, Matt had crawled in next to him, and Potter after that. Holly, Carrissa, and the still Spanish-speaking Percy sat in front of them, leaving Jakey alone in the front seat. Malfoy wasn't exactly sure if he trusted Jakey in the front seat of a car, but since his position was already bad, he didn't need to make it worse.

Like, say, if _Carrissa_ was driving. He knew she didn't even have a permit, because she had gotten into the car and said "I would drive, but if I get pulled over, we're all dead, because I don't even have a permit."

He didn't even want to ask about Holly, although he was sure that she drove illegally as well, because when Matt had offered (and gotten turned down) to drive, she had said "Matt, no offense, but I trust myself more to drive 80 miles an hour than I do you."

Harry, Percy, and he had never bothered to take a driving test because, of course, they were wizards and didn't need to drive a car to move from place. (And he and Harry were too young to get permits) You could just use a broom. Or a Portkey. Or, _Apparate,_ for Goddamn sake. But you didn't really _drive. _So it totally didn't matter that he wasn't old enough.

Anyway, Jakey was driving. (Just to establish that, because it was rambling way off.)

Holly leaned forward and tapped Jakey on the shoulder. "Pull over." He obediently pulled off the road. Draco looked around. They were surrounded by fields and hills on all sides. There was absolutely nothing there.

"_Why_ are we here?" he asked.

Holly tapped her forehead. "Forgot we had to change. Can't do it with Percy sitting here."

Sure enough, Jakey and Carrissa were pulling Percy out of the car. "_Por que? Ayudame! Ayudameeeeeee!" _he was screaming.

Jakey looked at him in disgust. "You're going in the front seat of the car, retard. Shut the hell up about it." With a final push, they got him more or less into the seat. "Good to go." Jakey climbed back into the front. "You can now change." he yelled over Percy's continuing screams.

"Change what?" Malfoy yelled back.

"Clothes, duh." Carrissa rapped him on the head. "You don't wear any color except black to play lasertag."

He looked around. Matt was wearing yellow. Harry was wearing black, because his robes were that color. Holly was wearing blue, and so was Carrissa. They (minus Harry and Jakey, who was also already wearing full black) were also pulling out black clothing.

"You're going to change in the _car_?" his voice scaled up on the last word.

"The windows are heavily tinted. It's not like anyone can see in." Matt said, his voice dripping with _duh._

"I'm closing my eyes." Malfoy moaned. "This is just too much." If his eyes had been open, he would have seen the look that passed between the four Marching Banders. But they weren't, so he didn't.

He kept his eyes resolutely closed the whole time, not even moving when Matt hit him or poked him or on one occasion where he kicked him in the crotch. He didn't move all through the banging, or the cursing, or the "You're sitting on my leg's". In fact, he didn't do anything until the car stopped.

Matt tapped him on the shoulder. "You can open your eyes now."

When he opened his eyes, his vision was obscured by something neon. He screamed, trying to shove it away.

"Get a grip, Slytherin bitch." Carrissa leaned over and yanked it off.

He screamed again. "What the hell am I wearing?" he gasped.

"The White Hood of Stealth." Holly replied matter-of-factly.

"Oh..." he groaned. The jacket was white with black tiger stripes. Intermixed with the stripes were splotches of neon pink, yellow, orange, purple, and blue paint. In addition, the jacket fell all the way to his feet and had a hood, which Carrissa pulled back up.

"This is what you wear." she cinched the hood tightly. "We took the liberty of putting it on while your eyes were closed."

"I think I just won't get out of the car." he curled into a ball on the seat.

"You will unless you want Dan to carry you in." Holly's voice whispered threateningly in his ear.

He sat up. He couldn't resist. "Whoever Dan is, he's not here."

"Of course I am." a new, deeper, distinctly male voice said. It belonged to a guy that he could just barely see, and for a second he thought it was Gabe. But it wasn't. This guy's hair was a light brown and not as straight. He was taller and a little heavier and his eyes were blue, not hazel. All in all, he was a whole hell of a lot more threatening than Gabe.

Draco closed his eyes again. "This is not happening."

"Oh, it's happening." Dan's voice was really close now. And just like that, the ground fell out from underneath Draco. He screamed again and thrashed, but something was holding him down. He opened his eyes. All he could see was the sidewalk, because that's how Dan was holding him.

"I'm being kidnapped! Help!" There had to be some bystander that would rescue him. He kept struggling as he was carried through a door.

"Hey, hey Jeffy!" he vaguely heard Holly say cheerily. "Is everyone here?"

"Yeah, I think so." a guy who must've been Jeffy answered.

"Good, because we've got new players today." Holly continued. "I'm thinking that Harry should join the other team, along with Percy. We'll stick to our team, the Twinsies, Dan, Carrissa, and me. Draco here-" she indicated him. "- he can join the last team."

"All right, let me just get some more vests." A few moments later, Jeffy returned laden down with flashing blue, red, and yellow vests.

Dan dropped him. "Behave." he hissed. Draco nodded mutely.

Matt shoved a yellow vest at him. "Here you are. You are on the illegal immigrant team." He pointed towards four people, three guys and one girl, who glared back.

"We aren't the illegal immigrant team." the girl glared.

Matt grinned. "Oh yeah, I forgot. You're the pissy team." He took a blue vest from Jakey and pulled it on.

The girl was still burning holes in Matt's head. "God, I hate him." She turned to Draco. "I'm Jerica. Those three are Cody-" A boy in a red plaid shirt and overalls waved. Draco shuddered. _Loser_. "- Corin -" A guy in puke green. "- and Tristan." She said his name with reverence, while the other two she had deemed more _gross_. He wholly agreed.

"So why are we the 'Loser' team?" he asked.

Jerica got a pissy look on her face. "You'll see." She herded him through a dimly lit room and into a hallway where rock music was pounding.

"Here we go!" Jeffy cried. "Load your guns." Everyone around him pulled a gun from their vest. Malfoy did the same, examining it. It was a laser gun. "Get set. Go!"

Almost immediately, a laser hit him in the chest. His suit powered down. "No fair!" he screamed, but everyone was gone. He looked around and realized the hallway wasn't a hallway. It was the entrance to a maze. His suit powered back up.

An automated voice came over the system. "Yellow base down." the female voice said. A shot sounded somewhere above him and his suit turned off again. He looked up just in time to see a flash of blue disappear behind a pillar on the upper story of the arena.

Draco aimed, waiting for his suit to come back on. As soon as it did, he shot. At the exact same time, a shot came behind him and killed his suit. He spun around to catch a glimpse of another blue vest.

"Twinsies!" Matt and Jakey yelled, sprinting off. He couldn't believe the Twinsies had gotten him with a double attack. He jogged off, looking for flashing vests, but he didn't see anyone.

As he entered a hall of mirrors, he heard more shots. He turned towards the sound, and saw yet another figure in a blue vest. He shot towards it, but it bounced off. _Bounced off?_ He suddenly realized he was looking into a mirror and the person was behind him. As he registered this, three shots hit him: one in the chest, one in the gun, and one in the back.

He was dead again. As his vest turned off, he looked in the mirror and realized why you should wear black. The arena was covered in black lights that made the white glow almost purple in the dark. He was _super _noticable. "Damn it." he muttered, running to find a safer place to hide. He found a ramp leading to the upper story and he sprinted to the top, slowing down when he saw a maze of walls with holes cut in them, strategically placed for firing and hiding.

He cautiously stepped into the center of the maze of walls, where there was a large hole at his eye level. He scanned the area, but saw nothing. "Red base down." the voice said. He spun slowly in a circle, looking for players, but he was alone. _I'll wait here for someone_ he decided. As he turned to look through the hole for unsuspecting people, he heard something. He turned and saw Matt.

He aimed his laser at Matt's chest. "I wouldn't do that." Matt said calmly, swinging his own gun from a finger.

"Why not?" Draco's voice shook with anger.

"You." a voice said and Draco turned to see Jakey stepping into the light.

"Are." Dan stood next to Jakey.

"In." Holly stepped out from behind the wall Draco had been looking through seconds before.

"An." Carrissa completed the circle.

"AMBUSH!" they screamed out together, rushing Draco. He fired his gun, but it went high, hitting the wall above Matt's head. They closed in, shooting, allowing just enough time for him to power back up before hitting him again.

Malfoy fell to his knees. Holly held up a hand. "They're near our base." The Twinsies went left, out of the maze and into the rest of the upper story. Dan ran back towards the ramp leading back down. Holly and Carrissa stood back to back, guns poised.

A shot rang out, followed by a yell. "He's gone." Dan called. Holly looked at Carrissa, who nodded. They took off, following the Twinsies.

Malfoy stood up, cursing. He saw a red vest a few feet away, running toward him. He aimed and hit the person in the chest. Draco's suit powered down. "What the...?" he turned wildly, almost hitting Dan, who was sprinting past him.

"Couldn't resist." Dan called over his shoulder as he aimed for the red guy, whose suit was just coming back on.

He hit him and disappeared, as the voice announced "Yellow base down." Draco stumbled blindly into another hallway, this one stainless steel. At the end of it, mounted in a corner of the ceiling, was a black dome with blinking lights.

Aha. This must be a base. He couldn't tell whose base it was, and he didn't care, he just shot at it. It buzzed, some of its lights going out. He fired again, and some more lights went out, but a few more came back on. He shot again. Same thing.

He screamed, shooting rapid-fire at the thing, but nothing happened. Suddenly, the voice rang out. "Game over. Please make your way to the exit."

Jeffy appeared around a corner, and said "Come on, I'll take you to the exit." Still extremely pissed, Draco followed him, focusing on the words Game Master that were printed in silver on the back of Jeffy's black shirt. Jeffy pushed open a door and Draco blinked, the bright light stinging his eyes. They were back in the lobby of the building.

"I'll just take your vest." Jeffy said, pulling it over his head.

As his eyes adjusted, Draco saw the rest of the group crowded around a television screen. A cheer went up from the blue team. "We won!" Draco looked at the screen. Blue team: 609, 483 points. Red team: 34, 239 points. Yellow team: 21 points. _21 points?_ He hated his life.

"Individual score cards!" Jeffy handed everyone a card. Draco's looked something like this: Rank, 15/15. Hits: In back, 38; In chest, 69; In shoulder, 78; On gun, 45. Shots made: 1.

They also showed how many hits other players had got and made. He looked at the blue team. Hits made: Dan, 56; Carrissa, 63; Matt, 69; Jakey, 78; Holly 82. And how many times they had been hit: Dan, 0; Carrissa, 0; Matt, 0; Jakey, 0; and Holly, 0. He ripped the paper into pieces and stomped on it.

Holly looked at him. "Learned your lesson?"

Draco narrowed his eyes. "I think so."

Holly considered. "There is a moral to this story."

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh, yeah? What is it?"

She crossed her arms over her chest. So did everyone else on the blue team. "The moral of the story is..." Matt, Jakey, Dan, and Carrissa started.

"Never get in a car with June." Holly finished.

_What. The. Fuck?_


	9. Chloroform, Sisters, and Expired Temps

**A/N: It's been months! I'm really sorry about that, it's just that this website got blocked. This chapter's actually been done awhile, though. And I promise, that even though this one is boring, information you learn in this chapter is going to be important later. So just trust me on that. I also promise that We WILL do actual Marching in the next chapter.**

Chapter 8: Greendale Issues and Driver's Licenses

Malfoy sulked all the way back to…. well, he wasn't sure, because he didn't really know where they were headed. All he knew was that he had been completely screwed over in that game. Seriously, 21 points? He had never done less than better than everyone else on everything. (In his mind)

Holly turned around. "Don't even think about it." Malfoy looked around, bewildered.

Dan withdrew his hand from his pocket, muttering "Bitch" under his breath. Malfoy just caught a glimpse of a small case. He figured that whatever was in it was bad, and that Dan was lucky that David wasn't there or he would've been killed with a drumstick knife.

"We've got issues." Matt said from the front passenger seat. "There's a cop behind us." Everyone looked at him. "What?" he asked.

"Your responsibility." Jakey said.

Matt looked around at the assembled group. "Wait…"

"No license." Carrissa said "Just temps."

"Same goes." Holly agreed.

"My temps are expired and I haven't yet scheduled a driving test." Jakey added.

Harry just shrugged apologetically. "I'm a wizard."

"Forget Percy; he's still only speaking Spanish." Holly said.

Matt looked appealingly at Dan.

"Sorry. Didn't bring my wallet." Dan smiled.

"What about…" Matt started.

"Oh, there is no way that I am ever letting him drive a car in a million years." Holly snapped. She leaned forward. "So, your job."

Malfoy was getting more and more panicked. "Nobody has a driver's license?" He hated himself for the fact that his voice scaled up at the end.

Holly looked pointedly at Matt "He does. That's it."

"Fine. Jakey, get out of the driver's seat." Matt huffed.

"Hey, guys…" Carrissa started. "It's just June."

"_In a cop car?"_ everyone asked incredulously.

They pulled over, the cop car right behind him. June jumped out of the driver's seat and hurried around to the back seat. Craig got out of the passenger side. Malfoy found himself being pushed out of the car by Dan and marched over to the car. The back car door was open and for a second he was sure Dan was going to tie him up and push him in, but he just stood there, pinning his arms behind his back. In the back seat was a guy in a green, white, and black marching band outfit.

"You'll never get away with this." the guy sneered, glaring at them all. Craig backhanded him across the face. The guy fell back, his eyes full of hatred and tears.

"Funny." Holly leaned into the car. "But I could say the same thing to you. What the hell were you doing that they caught you?"

"Like you need to know." The guy flipped his hair, but his eyes flashed with recognition when he saw Holly. He leaned forward against the handcuffs chaining him to the seat.

"He was trying to bug the room and take out pieces of equipment in the process." June said, tapping something that looked suspiciously like a taser against the side of the car.

"Figures. Greendale's never been particularly original or stealthy." Holly removed her sunglasses.

The guy's eyes opened wide. "HANNAH!" he exclaimed, straining against the handcuffs. "What are you doing with _Sauk_ people?" He spit the last word out like it tasted bad.

Holly's blue eyes turned to ice and she punched him so hard his nose began gushing blood.

"Shit, girl!" he tried unsuccesfully to staunch the flow of blood with his uniform.

The rest of the group (minus Craig and Carrissa) was looking between Holly and the guy like they were missing something.

"Hannah?" the guy said again tentatively. This time Craig and Carrissa caught Holly and held her back so she couldn't punch him.

_"Don't. Ever. Call me that." _she hissed venomously. "I don't associate with that traitor."

A look of bloody understanding came over the guy's face. "Oh no, hold on..."

"Who's Hannah?" Jakey asked confusedly. "Not the bass drum?"

"No." Craig answered. He looked at Holly, who sighed.

"No." she agreed, her voice tight. "My bitch of a twin sister."

She said this at exactly the same time as the Greendale guy blurted "You're her bitchy twin sister!"

At this, Holly actually smiled. "It's the other way around, dumbass. Hannah's a bitch. I'm not nearly as bad."

"Wait, wait, wait." Jakey interjected. "Time out. How come we never knew you had a twin?"

"Because she goes to Greendale. And she was a double agent when she did attend here. And she thinks she's better than everyone." Holly counted reasons on her fingers.

Malfoy was thinking that Hannah sounded preferable to this group. He wondered if he could get himself transferred over to Greendale and have a halfway decent (well, not decent, but better than where he was) time with this marching band thing.

"You have a sister in _Greendale?_" Matt asked incredously

Holly stared at him. "Yeah. Why do you think I never talk about her? She's a bitch for what she did. We haven't spoken since we were like five."

"Oh, this is great. I knew Hannah had a sister, but I never thought that..."Greendale Guy trailed off, and June went back to tapping the taser against the car door.

"Is it possible to... uh...transfer schools to do this marching band thing?" Malfoy asked hesitantly. He knew immediately he'd said the wrong thing. 10 pairs of eyes stared at him.

"Transfer? To Greendale?" Holly asked like she hadn't quite heard him. Her tone also indicated that the discussion of her sister was very over.

"I never said.." Malfoy looked around the group. Every pair of eyes (except Percy's and Greendale Guy's) was cold and unforgiving. "I don't want to transfer."

"Good boy." Holly smiled fake-sweetly. "Dan, let's take them back."

Dan scowled and removed the small case he'd been trying to get out earlier from his pocket. "Since when did you give me orders?"

Holly scowled right back. "Since you have stuff to knock people out."

Dan removed something Malfoy couldn't quite see from the case. "You know how backwards that sounds?" He crossed over to Greendale Guy.

Holly took Percy by the arm and started dragging him towards the car. "I know how backwards you sound."

"Lame comeback." Dan pressed whatever was in his hand to Greendale Guy's nose. Greendale Guy struggled at first, but eventually fell unconscious against the seat.

"Touche." Holly wrestled Percy's seatbelt on, ignoring his continued cries of _"Ayudame!" _"I'm tired and this guy needs to learn some new words."

Malfoy couldn't stop staring at Greendale Guy. Was that what Dan had been going to do to him? Probably. But why would Holly stick up for him? He wondered if he could use his knowledge of her sister to blackmail her into letting him out of marching.

"Get in the car, Slytherin Bitch." Craig pushed Malfoy over to the car.

"Don't call me Slytherin Bitch, Fag Cut." Malfoy retorted, but Craig wasn't even paying attention. He was looking at Carrissa, who was giving him a weird look across the car.

"You wanna ride with us Craig?" Matt asked.

Craig broke eye contact with Carrissa, shaking himself and releasing his grip on Malfoy's shoulder. "Yeah, sure."

"Yes!" Matt punched the air. "You drive!"

June came over, the taser gone. "We sort of have to leave the cop car here."

"No prob." Jakey shrugged. "We'll just throw Mr. Greendale in the back."

And that's how Malfoy ended up in the back seat of a car with two quad players practically on his lap. For 3 hours. All the way back to a hotel, The Cedarberry, where apparently the people from Hogwarts were staying.

To make matters worse, he was sharing a room with Harry. At that point (10 P.M.) though, Malfoy didn't even care. He'd been told he failed an exam, fallen into a river, humiliated at laser tag, attacked by a snare drummer, and forced to join a marching band and wear an ugly uniform while playing clarinet.

He crawled into one of the beds and fell asleep, certain it couldn't get any worse.

He awoke in someone's car with duct tape binding his wrists, ankles, and mouth.


	10. We Actually Do Some Marching

**A/N: So we did some actual marching, yay! And the next chapter is going to be pretty short and probably have nothing to do with band (most likely) but you won't get to read it for about 2 or 3 weeks because I'm leaving for camp in 2 days and I'm busy tomorrow and I haven't actually written it yet. But you'll survive for two weeks. Yes, I know it says 1 and B. Yes, Percy and Neville and Luna and the twins weren't there because: Percy is receiving private instruction, Neville is equipment, Luna is guard, and twins are drumline. Carrissa is just in this chapter for shits and gigs in case you were going to make an arguement.**

Chapter 9: We Actually Do Some Marching

Malfoy strained against the duct tape holding him. It held, but the car hit a bump and he was unable to stop himself from rolling off the seat and onto the floor. He let out a scream, muffled by the duct tape. He couldn't see anything; his hair was in his eyes. He blurrily saw a figure twist around from the front seat. It pushed his hair out of his eyes.

"Surprise!" Matt exclaimed. "You got the Marching Sectional Chauffeur Service. We don't run it every day, but for your first day, we're nice."

Malfoy tried to speak against the duct tape covering his mouth.

"I can't understand you, Slytherin Bitch. You've got something covering your mouth." Matt said, all fake-sympathetic and confused.

"Matt!" a girl shrieked. "The wheel!" She leaned over and yanked the wheel, putting the car back in the right lane.

"Sorry, Stella." Matt grinned. "I was just having a little fun."

"Have fun when we get there." Stella retorted. "I don't want you to crash my car."

Matt didn't turn around for the rest of the drive, but it seemed he went out of his way to find every speed bump in the entire town. Every time they went over one, Malfoy's body was thrown painfully against the seat. By the time the car stopped, he had made up his mind to contact somebody that could help him. He was going to be killed if he stayed here.

The back door to the car opened, and Jakey (yes, Jakey) pulled him out of the car. They were in front of the school. "I see you got him to come." he said over his shoulder to Matt, who had also gotten out of the car. Stella climbed into the driver's seat, waved, and drove off.

"Yeah, didn't even give the bitch a chance to resist. Just boom, out with Dan's chloroform." Matt pantomimed putting a cloth over his mouth and nose.

Draco fired out a long string of curses that would've worked if 1. He hadn't had duct tape over his mouth and B. He had a wand. As he thought this, he started to panic. Where _was_ his wand, anyway? He'd had it when he used the Portkey, and then he'd fallen into the river... _Shit._ He'd lost his wand in a river. He was so dead. He was also so preoccupied with his thoughts of wands that he didn't see Jakey's hand until it ripped the duct tape off his mouth. Malfoy's scream could be heard by the students at Hogwarts.

Nobody came to his rescue, though, except Holly, who came out of the door to the band room. She found Malfoy and the Twinsies both on the ground, Malfoy crying in pain and the Twinsies laughing their asses off. "I saw that from the window." she told the Twinsies, laughing. "It was beautiful."

Another car pulled into the parking lot. David jumped out and all of them heard Craig yell "Jump out of the car again when it's moving and you'll be missing a few body parts, Douche!"

David just grinned and Craig gunned the car straight for him, but at the last second, David jumped onto the sidewalk. Craig screeched to a stop and David tapped on the window. Craig put the window down and David stuck his head in the car. "Missed me."

Craig gave him the finger, then called out to the general vicinity "Anybody want lunch? I'm going down to Culver's."

The Twinsies looked at each other, then sprinted towards the car, both yelling "I call shotgun!"

Holly rolled her eyes, then crossed to the car herself. "Just custard." she told Craig.

"Any particular flavor? Toppings? Anything?" Craig asked as Jakey pushed Matt into the back seat.

"Surprise me. And get another one for Malfoy." she added as an afterthought.

"Okay." Craig said stonily. He put the car in drive, and took off out of the parking lot, leaving Jakey to wrestle the open passenger door shut.

Holly stood on the curb for a few seconds, like she didn't quite get what just happened, then turned towards Malfoy, who was still curled up in the fetal position on the ground. He looked up at her through half-open eyes. "What happened?" he asked weakly.

Her expression cleared and she sat down next to him on the grass. "We snuck into your hotel room at 5 A.M., and Dan chloroformed you. We didn't chloroform Harry; he came willingly. We didn't want to take any chances with you. Anyway, then we went to breakfast at Matt's house. And then we all left and did various things, and Matt said he would bring you here at noon. It's now noon-ten. You didn't wake up before he had to leave, so he duct taped you so you wouldn't try to escape if you woke up in the car. Which is exactly what happened. And now you're here, to attend a marching sectional."

"A marching sectional." he asked, trying to break the duct tape on his wrist.

"Yeah, it's where you learn how to march." She noticed what he was doing. "Here, let me do that." She pulled his wrists toward her.

As she began fiddling with the duct tape, Malfoy debated asking her the question he was dying, yet reluctant, to ask. "Hey... have you seen my wand?"

She looked up. "This is not going to work." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small knife and leaned toward him, but he yanked his hands away.

"Oh no. No way. I am not letting you slit my wrists with your knife." he tried to stand, but the duct tape around his ankles wouldn't let him.

"I'm not going to slit your wrists, dumbass. I'm going to cut the duct tape." she looked at him and, just for a second, he thought he saw a flash of something in her eyes. Something like desire. For him. But then her eyes went back to being full of contempt.

"I doubt it." he sneered at her, knowing he know had something to use against her. Later, anyway. After he formulated a plan. Which meant that he couldn't do anything now. He slowly held his bound wrists out to her. "Never mind." For now.

"Thank you." she took the knife and began to cut through the tape. He sat there, watching her, trying to come up with a plan. And by the time she had cut through the duct tape on his ankles, he had a plan. He would play along with this marching band thing, then screw them over and take off just before their State competition. And he'd take with him something they couldn't perform without. But until then he had to stick around because he didn't know what they needed most in competition. And if he left before he knew the show, he couldn't screw it. Whatever. He'd figure out his entire plan later. Until then though...

"You just going to sit there or are you going to get up and attend the marching sectional?" Holly asked impatiently.

Malfoy opened his mouth - he couldn't be completely docile or they'd know something was up - and said "I'm going to call my father and have him get me out of here." He stood and made a few steps in the opposite direction of the marching sectional before she caught him.

"You are going to the marching sectional." she said assertively, as she dragged him out to the parking lot on the side of the school. A guy in khaki shorts and mirrored sunglasses holding a drumstick and something that was red stood out there, along with Tyler, Carrissa, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny.

"So is everybody here?" Mirrored Sunglasses asked as Holly dragged Draco to a painted yellow line and made him stand on it.

"I do not have to be here for this." Malfoy complained, but he remained on the yellow line as Tyler lined everybody else up on it.

"If you need to know how to march, you have to be here. And you need to know." Tyler adjusted people's postions on the line. "Right, Kevin?" he added to Mirrored Sunglasses.

"Right." Kevin said. He pulled the out the red thing he had tucked beneath his arm. "This is a glockenspiel. Mostly we call it a glock. It's used to hit a beat that we march to. Like this." He demonsrated hitting the glock with the drumstick. It made a hard beat. (If you've ever heard a glock, you know what I mean)

"Okay." Tyler said, satisfied everyone was in position on the line. "The first command is the attention position. It-."

He was interrupted by Hermione's hand waving in the air. "Our feet are at a 45 degree angle and we stand slightly forward with our weight on the balls of our feet and we stand up very straight with eyes straight ahead." she blurted breathlessly without waiting to be called on.

"Yeah..." Kevin looked at her. "Only that wasn't a question."

Hermione blushed.

"She's right, though. So when we call you to attention, that's what you do." He went into the attention position as he spoke. "The command for attention is 'Band Atten Hut.' When one of the drum majors or Steve or Kevin or whoever is running things at that particular moment calls you to attention, you go into position and you yell 'Hut!' Got it?" He nodded to Kevin. "Let's try it."

Kevin began hitting a beat on the glock. "BAND ATTEN HUT." he called.

"HUT!" Holly, Carrissa, Tyler, and Hermione yelled back. Everyone else jumped and then tried to go into attention position.

Kevin sighed. "Okay, relax, and we're going to try that again." He began hitting a beat again. "BAND ATTEN HUT."

"HUT!" everybody except Ron shouted. Even Malfoy made a half attempt to do the position.

"Better." Kevin walked down the row, correcting people's stances.

Holly leaned over towards Draco. "Stand up straighter."

He stood up a little bit straighter. "Like that?"

"Good enough. And when you have your clarinet, you just hold it in front of you." She pretended to hold an invisible clarinet. "Like this."

Malfoy rolled his eyes just as Kevin said "Okay, now we're going to do a dress center command. When I yell 'Dress Center Dress,' you turn your heads toward the center, bring your instrument up, and dress the line to the person in the center. Which in this case would be Ginny." He started another beat. "DRESS CENTER DRESS."

Hermione raised her hand again. "We don't have instruments to bring up." she pointed out.

"Okay... well when you have an instrument bring it up." Kevin resumed hitting the glock. "BAND ATTEN HUT." Everyone snapped back to position. "I think we have attention good, but don't forget to snap every move. So from attention to dress center is one fast movement. Next, we're going to do a parade rest, and in a parade rest-"

"You move your left foot so your feet are shoulder width apart!" Hermione finished eagerly.

"Uh huh." Kevin took off his sunglasses and stared at her. "You've obviously studied this."

"Oh yes!" Hermione's words rushed out. "I was up all night studying and I know almost all of the positions, and I was practicing marching backward and sliding and stuff, and I really think-"

"Great!" Kevin cut her off. He didn't look particularly happy. Ordinarily, Malfoy would've enjoyed it, but the Mudblood was getting on his nerves too. "All right... BAND PARADE REST." They snapped to parade rest.

"Ron, your feet aren't exactly shoulder width apart." Hermione fretted. "Here move your left foot in a little - there, that's good." Malfoy grinned. He liked watching other people get corrected.

"BAND ATTEN HUT." Kevin shouted, looking very annoyed with Hermione. "Now we're going to mark time."

"Marking time is just moving your heels to the beat. Your heel should hit on each beat of the glock; left on odd beats, right on even. Keep your toes together." Hermione lectured the group.

"Exactly." Kevin forced a smile. It looked more like he was in pain. "Your left foot goes in on the first beat, your right foot on the second, until I tell you to halt. When I tell you to halt, you say '1,2' and step back into attention, with your right foot first. Let's do it." He began yet another beat on the glockenspiel. "Mark time, mark." They began marking time. "Ready, halt."

"1, 2" Holly, Carrissa, and Hermione said. Tyler had disappeared.

They practiced marking time for a few minutes and then Kevin announced. "We're going to work on marching forward, and then we'll be done. We're going to do 8's and 8's going forward, which means-"

"You mark time 8 counts, move forward 8 counts, and so on until you tell us to mark time and halt. And when we step out, we always step out on our left foot and dress the line while we mark time." Hermione interrupted.

"Yes, Hermione." Kevin's eyes were practically slits. "Okay, here we go... Mark time, mark." He hit the glock, and after 8 counts, they stepped forward. After 8 steps, they stopped and marked time. Then they took another 8 steps. And marked time. They practiced it over and over again until they got it.

"Alright." Kevin said at the end of the marching sectional. "We're going to do one review before we go. But first, Hermione, could you get me the other glock from the front of the band room?"

"Sure." Hermione took off.

Kevin checked to make sure she was gone. "I'm going to screw her over." Malfoy became interested. Screwing Mudbloods over was fun. As he listened to Kevin's plan, he had to admit it was good. Simple, but good. At first Ron and Harry looked hesitant, but they eventually agreed to go with the plan.

Hermione came running back out without a glock. "Where is it?" she asked, breathing heavily. "I couldn' t find it."

"Oh, that's okay, I realized we don't need it." Kevin said quickly. "BAND ATTEN HUT."

"HUT!" They all tried not to laugh.

"DRESS CENTER DRESS."

Malfoy caught Holly's eye. She grinned widely and he gave her a little half-smile in return. Interested, but not too interested. Perfect.

"We're going to do 8's and 8's. Ready... Mark time, mark." Even Kevin couldn't stop smiling. After 8 steps, only Hermione stepped off the line.

"Wh-wha-what?" she stammered, stopping. Her face was bright red. Everyone else was laughing hysterically.

Finally, Carrissa calmed down enough to say "I guess you didn't study that-" She started laughing again and couldn't finish.

"-that you can only mark time and march from an attention position." Holly managed to gasp.

"That's not fair!" Hermioned stormed off, Harry and Ron following from a distance, still laughing.

A car horn honked. Craig was back with the food. Holly, and Carrissa took off towards the car. Draco trailed behind. He needed to work out the details on his plan so he could set it in action.

Holly handed him a dish of ice cream covered in bits of chocolate candy. He took a bite. "This is incredible!" he blurted without thinking.

"Culver's Custard. It's pretty freakin' awesome." Holly took a bite of her own sundae. Malfoy nodded in agreement. "Come on, let's go in. I have to tell you a few things about the season." She started walking toward the band room.

As Malfoy left, he turned back and saw two things: 1. A look of pure hatred that passed Craig's face so quickly, Draco wasn't even sure it was ever there, and B. The Twinsies grinning at him. That was not a good sign. He quickened his pace to catch up with Holly. Whatever the Twinsies had in store for him, he would deal with later.


	11. Matt Pops The Question

**A/N: So it's been longer than 2 or 3 weeks, but I don't really care. I wrote this when I was in a kind of sappy happy mood, but whatever. It has nothing to do with band at all whatsoever, not really. I love Impact camp. We jacked Camper Jared Jr. and his father's hat. Next chapter should be done sometime before school starts. Any suggestions for stuff? Let me know, thanks.**

Chapter 10: Matt Pops the Question

Malfoy ate a bite of custard, only half-listening to Holly's lecture on competitions and how he, Draco Malfoy, needed to attend band camp or else. He was mostly focusing on his half-formed plan, but he was also enjoying the custard which was covered with little bits of chocolate. He had learned that the chocolate was actually bits from a 3 Musketeers candy bar.

"Anyway." Holly said, winding down the lecture. "That's about it. You got it?"

Malfoy looked at her, licking the last bit of custard from his spoon. "Um, yeah..."

Holly rolled her eyes and sighed. "I'll look forward to going over it again tomorrow. And next week. And the rest of the season. Until the beginning of June, when we do Graduation, our last commitment of the year." she called after him as he walked to the trash can.

He froze, the empty dish rolling off his palm and into the trash can. He turned slowly around. "What?"

"It's called sarcasm, Slytherin Bitch" - Great. That name was spreading - "Ever heard of it?" Holly said like she was explaining something to a small child. If you explained things to small children with a voice full of hate and sarcasm. And that desire too, of course he reminded himself.

"No, not that. About June and graduation." He tried to walk away from the trash can, but his legs were frozen.

"Our last band commitment is the graduation ceremony in June. Approximately 11.5 months from now." Holly told him.

"But... I'm leaving at the end of August. To go back to school. You know, start my 5th year." Malfoy explained. So, obviously, he wouldn't be there to hear her lecture.

Except... except the look on her face didn't look so good. Like she was going to say something he didn't want to hear. Which was pretty much everything she said, but this look said it was something that was so bad, she actually felt bad about telling him this news. "Malfoy." Her voice was soft.

"I mean, so I'm not going to be here for that graduation thing, because I'll be back at Hogwarts. I hear Dolores Umbridge is going to be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. She knows my father and works at the Ministry of Magic." He was just babbling, trying to stop her from talking. He didn't care that he sounded like a retard. He just didn't want to hear what she was going to say.

"Malfoy." she said again, and this time he went quiet. "Didn't anyone tell you? You're going to stay all year... basically now until the end of the school year. You'll be attending school with us. Since competition season goes until the end of October, and then we've got pep band and concert band, Dumbledore thought it would be best."

"No. No, I'm not staying for the rest of the school year. I'm going back to Hogwarts, where _normal_ people go." his knew he sounded slightly hysterical, but he couldn't stop himself. "I have to go back!"

She sighed. "You can't go back. If you try, they'll send you back here."

"I'm leaving. You can't stop me." he just sneered at her, all thoughts of a plan forgotten. He needed to leave this place. Now.

Holly shrugged. "Kay, fine. I'm not stopping you."

He looked at her suspiciously. "Then I'm going." He started to walk away, relieved that his legs moved this time. He walked towards the doors that led outside and pushed through them. First, he was going to contact somebody to come get him. Using a - Shit. He had no wand to cast a Patronus. He revised his last thought. First, he was going to find his wand. Then he would contact somebody, and in the meantime he would leave this town and all the crazy people in it.

"Hey." A voice right next to his ear said. He jumped. It was Matt. Jakey was nowhere to be seen. Malfoy was immediately on guard. One of the Twinsies disappearing was not a good sign. And he hadn't forgotten the fact that they had been smiling at him strangely like 15 minutes before. "Leaving so soon?"

"Uh, yeah." Malfoy sped up a little, but Matt started walking faster too, keeping pace with him.

"Oh." And Matt sounded so sad when he said that, Malfoy turned and looked at him. Matt had a really weird look on his face. "Before you go, can I ask you a serious question?"

"Sure...?" Draco gave his permission hesitantly, not sure he wanted to know the question. But Matt's face was serious.

"Okay." Matt got down on one knee and took Malfoy's hand in his. "So this might be a little forward and all, since we just met yesterday, but I feel like we've been through a lot together in those 24 hours and-"

Oh. My. Fucking. God. This was _not_ happening. Matt was _not_ gay and he certainly wasn't asking Malfoy to be his _boyfriend_. And none of it was happening in front of the school where _anyone_ going by could see them. He tried to pull his hand away, but Matt was gripping it too tightly. He looked down at Matt, who still wore a serious expression.

"And I just feel like I kind of know you now, you know? So, I was wondering..." He paused and stood up, but didn't let go of Malfoy's hand. He stepped close to Draco and continued. "I was wondering... how are you in bed?"

Malfoy was so surprised, he yanked his hand out of Matt's, turned to run, tripped over something and landed in a heap. He looked up. Matt stood over him, looking confused. "I-I think you've got the wr-wrong idea, Matt." Malfoy stuttered out.

"I don't think so." Matt straightened up, shook his head, and turned to walk away. "I really thought you were different. I guess not."

"Wait, Matt." Draco called.

Matt turned, hopeful.

"I don't like you that way, and you better never tell anyone what happened out here or I will kill you!" He managed to get to his feet. "Got it?"

Matt regarded him for a second. "Got it." He walked away, over to where Holly was standing outside the bandroom door.

"I see you were rejected." She said to him.

"Yeah, but it's okay. I can always get somebody else." He shrugged.

"Yeah." She nodded, looking up at the sky.

"Yeah." he echoed her, looking down at the ground.

Jakey walked around the corner of the school, saw them standing there awkwardly, and stopped. "Did you ask?" he looked at Matt.

"Um, kind of." Matt looked over the top of Jakey's head.

"So finish asking her." Jakey turned around, then turned back to Matt. "There's nothing behind me."

"Ask me what?" Holly interjected.

"Ask you..." Matt took her hand. Malfoy stared at them. So now Matt was bi. Yeah, somehow that didn't surprise him at the moment.

"Yes?" Holly looked down at her hand.

Matt stepped a little closer to Holly. "How are you in bed?"

Her reaction was instantaneous. She took his other hand, and pulled him closer, putting her arms around his neck. His arms were already around her waist. She leaned close to him and Malfoy was so sure she was going to kiss him, but at the last second she whispered in his ear. "You tell me."

"I will." He whispered back. _"Tonight."_

When Malfoy came to, all three of them were on the ground, laughing their asses off. He sat up shakily, feeling the large lump on the back of his head. Jakey noticed him sitting up, but couldn't stop laughing to say anything, so he just sat there pointing at Malfoy and laughing. Draco put on his haughtiest expression. He still had _some_ dignity.

Eventually, Matt stopped laughing long enough to say "My God Malfoy, you should've seen your face. It was fucking_ hilarious_. I can't believe you fell for that. Especially that I was _bi_." He started laughing again.

A shadow passed in front of the sun and Malfoy looked up. It was David Gilbertson. David looked at the three still laughing. Then he stared down at Malfoy. "This is what happens when you try to leave." He sighed. "Come with me." Without waiting for any type of answer, he pulled Malfoy to his feet and began pulling him towards the parking lot.

Malfoy looked back at the school, tempted to call out for help. Although he wasn't sure he wanted to deal with the Twinsies and Holly right then. But, then again, he really didn't want to go anywhere with David. Before he could come up with a decision, he was sitting in the passenger seat of a car, and David was driving down the road.

He was pretty sure he should've just agreed to stay and do marching band. Maybe then he wouldn't be in such deep shit.


	12. Malfoy Chooses An Option and Apprentice

**A/N: So originally in this chapter David was going to release Malfoy in the woods and hunt him down while Malfoy attempted to make it back to the school, but I decided I didn't like that idea. I wrote this whole chapter tonight, because apparently I'm on an updating spree. So read, people, read! And the official chapter title was a reference to Starwars (like he's the Master so he chose an apprentice, who doesn't quite understand what's going to happen)**

Chapter 11: Malfoy Manages a Plan and A Persuasion to the Dark Side

David drove for a long time. At least, it felt like a long time to Draco. (In reality, it was about 20 minutes.) Finally, he pulled over on a side road, into a clump of trees, where they couldn't even see the road anymore.

"Hey, do you mind telling me-" Draco began, but David pulled a drumstick from his pocket and began to run a finger up the side threateningly. He went quiet.

"Don't talk to me. I'm busy." David reached towards Malfoy, and he flinched, but David just picked up a CD with the words 'Fritz Did It' written on it and slid it into the cars stereo. A drum roll blasted through the car and some guy started singing about his boots, his leather, and his black kohl liner.

"Okay, so-" David raised his eyebrows, and Malfoy fell silent again.

"I said, I don't want to talk to you." David busied himself with a small black box.

Malfoy fidgeted. He really didn't want to be here. He needed to get back to England, and Hogwarts, and normal wizards, not crazy physco American marching banders.

"All right. All done." David set the box down and leaned toward Malfoy. "So, I'm here to tell you a few things."

This was not what Malfoy had been expecting him to say. "Um.. okay?"

David gave a self-satisfied smirk like he knew he'd caught Draco off-guard and liked it. "It's just that they're always listening, so I had to take measures to make sure the rest of them don't hear us."

"The rest of what?" Draco had a feeling he knew, but he asked anyway.

"The other people in the marching band, duh. They always gossip and then something you meant for just one person to hear, ends up being broadcast to like 300 people." David twirled his drumstick between two fingers.

"I guess that makes sense, but..." He hesitated. He had a bad feeling he was going to get another Matt-type I'm-gay-and-in-love-with-you confession. Only this one would be serious. And of course, it was okay that they were in love with him. He was a pretty awesome guy. But he didn't need to hear a bunch of these confessions from gay guys.

"I'm not gay." David started, point-blank.

Malfoy reddened. "After Matt, I don't know..."

"Matt's not gay either."

"I-"

"Or bi."

"Yeah, because he's apparently going to do it with Holly tonight." Malfoy blurted out before David could continue.

"No, he's not. She's got much higher standards than that. She doesn't even like him like that." David said this like it was obvious.

"And she told you this?" Malfoy snapped back.

David shrugged. "Yeah, actually, she did."

"Whatever." Draco decided to drop the subject, because it really wasn't getting him anywher closer to out of _here._

"So, I was going to tell you a few things." David paused considering. "A few pointers, if you will. First, don't get Holly on your badside. That one kind of goes without saying, but you never know. Second, never disrespect the marching band or we will hunt you down and you will wish you had never said anything. Third, just learn the drill, memorize songs, attend the functions, and go back to Hogwarts. Don't be noticed. Don't start trouble. Just stay under the radar, because if you don't, I can't tell you what will happen."

"Uh-huh, 1&2 sound like obvious ones, but why should I really trust you on Number 3? You hate me." Malfoy countered snarkily.

"I do." David agreed readily. "But I hate other people more. And if you're causing trouble, we'll have problems with them. And we don't need that. Also, don't even think about going after your mentor." He glared when he said this, and although he didn't want to admit it, it gave Malfoy a shiver of terror.

"Um, why can't I? Not that I'm going to, but why can't I?" He struggled to achieve his normal drawl, which he hadn't really been able to regain for about 25 hours. Since he got here.

David hesitated, then slid his finger up his drumstick and pointed the blade at Malfoy's chest. "Personal favor." He half-smiled infuriatingly.

"Whatever." Malfoy sneered, then instantly regretted it, because he'd already used that comeback. Honestly, though, he could go after any girl he wanted.

David apparently though the same thing. "Glad that's settled then." He started the car and pulled back onto the road.

"So we had to do all the noise and audio jamming and drive out here so no one else could hear this?" Draco asked.

"Oh, no. All we had to do was get in my car so no one could hear us." David turned off the music, cutting off some lady's song about her poker face.

"Why the hell did we drive all the way out here then?" Malfoy asked angrily

"It makes it seem more serious. People take you seriously when they think other people are trying to listen in. And I'm not really supposed to give you advice." David turned sharply and Malfoy found himself in front of the hotel he was staying at.

"I hate you, asshole." Malfoy pushed himself out of the car and slammed the door with a bang. He stalked past the lady at the front desk and got in the elevator and then stomped down the hall and into the room he was sharing with Potter. Potter wasn't there; he was probably still at the school being all buddy-buddy with the marching banders.

He had to think of a plan to screw this band over, no matter what David had said. He'd thought in the car on the way there, but nothing had occured to him and it was hard to think while you thought a crazy knife wielding teenager might be driving you to your death. Although something David said gave him an idea. He had no idea what the group had talked about this morning before he had woke up, but apparently David had promised somebody that he wouldn't let Malfoy make a pass at Holly. Which meant that she probably liked him. Wait, scratch that. She did like him.

_Don't even think about it _David's angry face passed through his mind, but he pushed it away. It was a simple, yet perfect plan. He'd get Holly to fall in love with him. He'd lead her on until the end of the season, then break her heart. And timed it right, like maybe break up with her the day of State, she'd run. And so would he. Which meant a large portion of the band would be after either him or Holly. And they wouldn't be able to compete. It was brilliant.

He spun around the room, feeling elated for the first time since coming here. All he had to do was make a love potion, which would be fairly simple. Professor Snape had taught him an easy one way back in his 2nd year. He would need all his normal potion ingredients, which he had, because for some reason his school trunk had been delivered to the hotel. And he'd need a possession of Holly's, which wouldn't be hard. And of course, his... Shit.

His wand.

He still didn't know where it was. He'd lost it in the river, and he'd never be able to replace it here. Obviously, American wizards bought their wands somewhere, but he'd never be able to find where with the marching band watching him. He considered the fact that somebody in the marching band might know where it was, or even have it. But to get it... he cursed again. He'd have to enlist the Weasel twins help, because they knew how to extract information and pickpocket.

He nodded, resolved. He'd get the twins to help him. Persuade them, somehow. First, though, he'd have to find the twins. And the people that would know best would be... David. Which was not a good choice at all. Which left Gabe, the other leader of the snares. He'd have to ask Gabe, although he didn't think Gabe would be too keen to give him help, if the way he'd treated him yesterday was any indication. On the other hand, he got the feeling Gabe wanted him gone, which would go a lot faster if Gabe helped him out with this. He'd need a ride to the school.

He went over to his trunk and pulled out the slip of paper that had been slid in through the crack in the lid. On it was a list of phone numbers. He ran a finger down the list, scanning. There. Somebody else he thought would want him gone sooner. He picked up the phone on the desk and dialed the number.

"Hello?" The voice on the other end answered.

"Hello. I believe I have some information that could be of service to you." Malfoy went straight to the point.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. It's about my leaving earlier than planned." Malfoy said.

The person on the other end paused. "I'm listening."

"All I need is a ride to wherever Gabe is. Or, the Weasley twins, if you know, and then we could leave their section leader out of the picture." Malfoy twisted the cord around his fingers.

"The Weasley twins... they're down at the school."

"Then I need a ride to the school."

"Okay. But you better be serious about leaving soon."

"I'm _extremely_ serious."

"Good. Because I could get in extreme_ trouble _for this." The voice was sharp as a razor blade.

"I know."

"I'll be there in 3 minutes."

"I'll be waiting outside."

The person on the other end hung up without saying goodbye.

"Oh you'll get everything you deserve, Craig." Draco Malfoy's voice was soft and sinister. He dropped the phone and walked downstairs to wait.


	13. Five Finger Death Punch

**A/N: Another chapter and it's only been 3 days. In the next one, I think Malfoy is going to make the love potion and attend summer band. I don't know. I don't necessarily like any of the bands listed in this chapter, I just decided that Craig was an alt-rock type person and so looked up some bands to have him like. Any suggestions, ideas? PM me at quidditchseasonprotection on (Or just review, that works out too.) You know, I should stop asking Merlander01 for ideas because I never use them... Okay, read.**

Chapter 12: Five Finger Death Punch (On Craig)

Draco Malfoy opened the door and slid into the passenger seat of Craig's car. Music that sounded like somebody yelling random indistinguishable words into a microphone was playing through the speakers. "You mind turning that off?" he asked Craig, but it wasn't really a question. It was an order.

"I believe I'm helping you, so watch it, Slytherin Bitch." Craig's words were just as icy as Malfoy's, but he ejected the CD from the stereo. "Some people just have no taste." he muttered under his breath.

Malfoy bristled. "_I_ have no taste? Have you _looked_ at your hair lately? And I'm sure you don't have about ten girls hanging on _you_ everywhere _you_ go."

Craig just rolled his eyes. "Maybe I don't, but I was talking about music. How many people don't like Five Finger Death Punch?"

"A lot of people."

"A lot of people?" Craig asked in disbelief. "Like 23?"

"Like 6,938,691,100 people in the world don't like Five Finger Death Punch." He'd heard the number from Holly yesterday when she'd been on the phone with somebody and they'd been talking about music and they had asked her the same question. (Which, by the way, is a pretty close estimate because I looked at the estimated world population and then subtracted the number of people that liked Five Finger Death Punch on Facebook as of 8/27/11 4:24 PM)

"I thought you needed my help?" Craig asked in a Let's-stop-having-this-conversation-or-you-will-be-left-on-the-side-of-the-road tone.

"All I need is a ride, Playboy. Don't get so excited." Malfoy leaning back in his seat, and using a word he'd heard Jakey call Matt the day before.

"You do know that you just called me a man-whore and said I had a boner? For _you_?" Craig looked like he was seriously regretting agreeing to help Malfoy. And like he was seriously considering putting him on the side of the road.

Malfoy's jaw dropped and his face went pale(er). "No... I...uh...I...didn't...actually...I mean...I" he stuttered, wondering how he'd managed to get himself into such a huge mess. He should've just studied for Divination when he'd had the chance. And then he wouldn't be here calling people gay and _not knowing it _(Because that was the operative phrase there.) "No. Just forget I said that, because I have had a few too many experiences with gay guys today."

"I figured and believe me, I'll do my best to forget that. What do you need the Weasley twins for anyway?" Craig pulled a black case out from next to his seat and tossed it into Malfoy's lap. "Find a better CD."

"I need my wand back, and they're good at pickpocketing and extracting information from people." Draco opened the case and began flipping through CDs.

"I'm pretty exceptional at pickpocketing." Craig offered, then slapped a hand over his mouth. "_You_ forget _I_ said that."

Malfoy wasn't about to be deterred. "Do you know who has my wand? Could you find out and get it for me?"

Craig sighed and slumped back against his seat. He was quiet for awhile, just driving. "I know who has it." he eventually said. "But I am _not_ getting it for you."

"Okay, then who has it?" Malfoy asked eagerly, forgetting to be cool for a second.

"Holly."

"Oh."

"Yeah, and there is no way you are _ever_ going to convince me to get your wand from _her_. I'd be in deep trouble." He added the last part almost as an afterthought.

"If you help me get the wand, I'll leave about 9 months earlier than planned." Malfoy tempted him.

"Tempting, but I can't help you."

"Please?"

"Still no."

"I'll make you look better."

"_No!"_

"Don't get all offended. I was just offering _my_ help." Malfoy threw the CD case into the backseat. "Those are all lame."

"They are not!" Craig retorted.

"Okay, what if just distract Holly and then you tell me where it is and I get it?" Malfoy offered.

"Well..." He didn't say no.

"Come on, then you won't get in trouble, and if she finds out, I'll tell her that I forced you to tell me." Malfoy gave his last offer.

Craig hesitated. "Okay."

"Good. Now, where is it?"

"As far as I know, it's in her slot, in her clarinet case." Craig pulled up in front of the school and into a parking stall. "I don't like doing this." he told Malfoy.

"I know. Just remember, you're distracting everyone that's there and I'm going to go in and grab the wand. Then we meet back at your car."

"Uh huh. I got it. Just go, or I might strangle you." He looked like he might either punch him in the face or puke his guts out in the school parking lot. Malfoy went.

Inside the bandroom, there were only two people: Holly and Carrissa. And they were in front of their slot. Draco looked to Craig, who swallowed, looking greener than he had outside, and walked over to where they were standing.

"Um, hey." He shifted his weight from foot to foot.

"Hey, Craig." Holly kicked Carrissa, who was digging through a bunch of paper on the floor.

"Yeah, hey." Carrissa barely glanced up.

"Can I help you?" Holly asked him.

Craig went slightly red. "Oh, um, I..." He looked around helplessly.

"I found it!" Carrissa exclaimed, holding up a piece of paper. "The details for our next trip!"

"Yes! Where's it to?" Craig looked grateful for a ready-made distraction.

"Chicago. Next week, Tuesday." Carrissa handed him the sheet. "Well, I have to go. Holly, see you tomorrow." She grinned, then walked towards the door. Malfoy barely had time to sprint around the corner of the school before she was out the door. She walked towards the school parking lot. Malfoy peered back through the door. Holly was now picking up all the other papers on the floor, and throwing them into her slot and Craig was still staring at the band room door, and he could've been waiting for Malfoy, but the expression on his face said otherwise.

He had to choke back a laugh. Craig liked _Carrissa_? This was perfect. If he ever needed help from Craig again, he knew what to use against him. He walked back inside, towards his slot.

"Hello, Malfoy." Holly said, like she'd forgotten all about the little display between her and Matt just a few hours earlier.

"I, uh, wanted to practice." Malfoy gestured at his slot, and glanced at Craig, who was still frozen.

Holly followed Draco's gaze. "Craig?" She seemed to realize where he was looking and comprehension dawned. "You could ask her to do something, you know?"

Craig finally looked at her. "What?"

Holly looked at Craig, then at Malfoy, and then pushed Craig towards the hallway, saying "I forgot, I have to do something. Come with me." As they left, Draco heard her say "Just ask her if she wants to tour the art museum with you in Chicago or something."

Malfoy dropped to his knees (Holly and Carrissa's slot was on the floor) and began digging through it. It was extremely messy, with water bottles, papers, clothes, and other stuff strewn all over it, but he found her case pretty quickly. He opened it and saw his wand laying inside. He grabbed it, and then, remembering one of the other ingredients he needed, he grabbed a lip gloss that was also in there. He stood up and closed the door to the slot, just as Holly and Craig came back into the room. Craig seemed kind of dazed and nervous at the same time and Holly was still talking about Carrissa.

"Well, I'm going to go, okay?" Craig said when he spotted Malfoy leaning against the wall.

"Okay. Just remember what I said, all right? Think about it. It won't kill you." Holly told him, and smiled, but it wasn't a happy smile. It was a sad smile, like she knew he wouldn't go through with it.

"I'll remember. I'm not promising anything, but...thanks. I have to take Malfoy to his hotel now." Craig practically pulled Malfoy's arm from it's socket as he all but sprinted out the door and to his car. He unlocked the door and slid into the driver's seat and hit his head against the steering wheel. "That did _not_ go as planned."

Malfoy got in. "Actually, it did. Well, except for the part where me and Holly found out who you like, but other than that, it went well."

"Yeah, whatever." Craig looked dejected. "I didn't want her to know that."

Draco Malfoy didn't know what made him say his next words "I'll help you get Carrissa. If you want me to, I promise to help you."

Craig lifted his head from the steering wheel. "What?"

"I'll help you get her." Malfoy forced the words out a second time. "I don't really want to, and I don't know why I said that, but I guess I owe you a favor." (Actually, he didn't think he did, but the words were out and he'd promised. And he could break a promise, but since Craig was no doubt capable of killing him, it wasn't a wise choice.)

Craig took a deep breath. "You can help me now by not telling anyone."

"I won't." And it was true. Malfoy wouldn't.

Craig didn't look so sad and dejected anymore. His tone was light as he backed the car out of the parking lot and drove off towards the hotel. He pulled another CD case out. "Here, look through these."

Malfoy obliged, feeling smug, knowing that in about 24 hours, he'd have Holly in love with him and his plan would be in motion. He flipped to the last CD, then threw it in the backseat, where it landed next to the other case. "Don't you have anything besides Creed, Killswitch Engage, Godsmack, Disturbed, Metallica, Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin, System Of A Down, Animals In Human Attire, Pantera, Mudvayne, Static X, Lamb of God and Avenged Sevenfold?" _Like maybe something people liked_, but he didnt't add that part out loud.

"Yeah." Craig grinned.

"What?" Malfoy didn't like that grin.

"Five Finger Death Punch."


	14. The American Ministry of Magic Sort of

**A/N: Apparently, I like this story all of a sudden because this is the third update in 6 days. Next chapter may be up Thursday, otherwise it'll be sometime like Sunday or way later because school starts Friday and I don't really know my schedule, but 3 updates in a week should tide you over because really, it's a lot. **

**Chapter 13: Watermelon Lipgloss and Eavesdropping Twinsies**

Back in his (and Harry's room) at the hotel, Draco Malfoy pulled his cauldron out of his trunk and and withdrew his 10-inch wand. (Hawthorn and unicorn hair.) He removed the instructions for the potion from inside a set of his old school robes, smoothed them out on the table, and looked at the ingredients, relieved to see he had all of them with him. He assembled the ingredients, setting the lip gloss and one of his quills aside to put in last. He needed to boil the potion, so he carried the cauldron over to the stove in the kitchenette. He turned the burner on.

Adding moonstone, rose thorns, and peppermint to the cauldron, he pointed his wand at it, muttering "_Incendio." _Flames came to life inside the cauldron, mixing with the salt water he'd already added and creating pink steam. "Perfect." he began adding more ingredients one by one, stirring. As he worked, he was humming. And Draco Malfoy almost never hummed. In fact, he could count the number of times he'd hummed on one hand. But he was happy. He was going to pull one over on this marching band who thought they knew everything and couldn't possibly be beaten by anyone or anything, ever. Of course, he was humming whichever song David had been playing yesterday in the car, but at that point, he didn't care.

The phone on the table rang, shattering the peace. Malfoy glanced at the potion, then sprinted to the table, picked up the phone, and ran back to the stove to keep watch over his solution. (Literally and figuratively) "Hello?"

"Good afternoon, Mr. Malfoy." the voice on the other end said stiffly. It was almost familiar, but he couldn't place it.

"Um, do I know you?" Malfoy dropped some more peppermint into the mixture and began stirring it counterclockwise. It turned crimson almost immediately. "Because, how do you know my name, weirdo? Wait -are you from the Ministry of Magic or the American equivalent? Sorry about calling you a weirdo, it's just I've been kidnapped by physco Ma-Muggles and it's been absolutely terrible. I mean, I've been abused dreadfully, and I intend to have something done about it. I-"

"I'm from the American Ministry Of Magic, yes. I'm from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and we've been alerted to some kidnapping attempts by the Department of International Magical Cooperation. We've been looking for some missing witches and wizards, and we have had no leads until approximately 13 minutes and 17 seconds ago, when someone performed the 'Incendio' spell in this hotel room. Since there are no wizards registered as living or working here, we looked into it. And you are, of course, Draco Malfoy? That's one of the wizards missing and the name of the occupant of this room given to us by the front desk..."

Malfoy was stunned. This was what he'd been waiting for! He almost forgot he had a boiling potion on the stove, but remembered at the last second, and kept stirring, going clockwise this time. "Yes! Yes, I'm Draco Malfoy, one of the most outstanding aspiring wizards of the day, in Slytherin House!"

The voice on the phone became happy. "Excellent, Mr. Malfoy! I am Mr. Steinmetz from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, as you already know. You have performed illegal, under-age magic, but in light of the circumstances, that will be ignored. Attempting to melt the metal hinges on the door, I assume?"

Draco hadn't even considered that using the magic was illegal, and so jumped on the suggestion gratefully. "Yes, that's it! Are you going to come and rescue me?"

Mr. Steinmetz's voice became serious again. "Of course, Mr. Malfoy. But do you know about any of the other missing witches and wizards? Their names are Harry Potter-I can see why they'd want to kidnap him, being the boy who defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and all, some of the others must've tried to defend him and gotten taken too, but I'm getting off track-"

"Yes." Malfoy said through gritted teeth. He didn't need to sit through another gush session on Harry Potter. "I know where some of them are."

"Wonderful!" Mr. Steinmetz exclaimed. "Can you tell me?"

"Well, I think all the rest of them are down at the school. The high school. Does that help?" He barely noticed his potion had turned a dark purple. Without thinking, he dropped his quill into the potion. It sparkled for a moment, then dissolved.

"Oh, yes. We know where the school is. We can rescue everyone just fine then. Thank you so much for your help, Mr. Malfoy."

"When will you be here to get me?" he asked.

"A few minutes at most. Be ready. And Mr. Malfoy..."

"Yes?" He was hoping for some hint of what was going to happen to the marching banders or at the very least, something important to remember.

"Don't forget about summer band tonight."

_"What?" _Malfoy squawked into the phone.

On the other end of the line, Mr. Steinmetz started to laugh, and suddenly, Malfoy knew where he'd heard the voice before.

_"Jakey?"_

"And Matt. We can't forget the other half of the Twinsies." Matt's voice was in the background, but it sounded louder than it should've.

Malfoy was fuming. He couldn't believe that he'd been tricked by them. For like the 3rd or 4th time. He was so angry, one of the vases sitting on the table shattered. "_Reparo."_ he growled at it. It flew back together.

"Yeah, we're going to pick you up for summer band. It starts at 6:30 tonight." Jakey said conversationally, like he hadn't just impersonated a member of the Ministry of Magic.

"Right." Draco took a deep breath, trying to calm down. He looked down at the potion swirling below him. All he needed to add was the lip gloss. He took the tube out of his pocket and unscrewed the top. It was a dark pink and the label said it was watermelon flavored. He squeezed the entire tube of sparkly goop into the cauldron and stirred. The potion turned a pale pink. "Because I totally trust you. You do remember what Matt told me this morning, right?"

"That wasn't real. I was just kidding. Come on, Slytherin Bitch, take a joke!" Matt yelled, his voice sounding even louder than it had last time.

"If that's your idea of a joke, then you are seriously screwed up." Malfoy stopped stirring the potion. He took a small bottle from his trunk and dipped it into the potion. He corked the bottle and slipped it into his pocket to use later that night, probably at this summer band thing.

"Tell us something we don't know." Jakey's voice was sounding closer all the time. "We are a little screwed but I could care less, so S my D."

Malfoy realized what was happening a split second before it did. "_Evanesco!" _he whispered frantically, pointing at the rest of the potion. The potion vanished instantly and the hotel room door swung open, revealing Jakey and Matt. Draco dropped the phone with a CLUNK!

"Hello, Slytherin Bitch." Jakey said coolly. "Whatcha makin'?" his eyes roamed the room suspiciously.

"Soup." Malfoy squeaked.

"What?"

"I was going to make soup." Malfoy's voice came out stronger this time.

"Soup." Matt raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah." Something dawned on Malfoy. "How-how did you know I performed the Incendio curse?"

"The marching band has its ways..." Jakey and Matt said at the exact time. It was the same line Carrissa had said when he'd first gotten dropped here.

"So, why don't you tell us what you were really doing?" Jakey added.

"Okay, I was making a potion that would make me invisible. But you ruined it." Malfoy threw them a disgusted look, hoping they would believe him, even though it gave him the creeps that they were watching him. But they wouldn't know what the potion did.

They did. "Whatever, Sib." Matt said.

"Sib?" Jakey asked.

"Sib?" Malfoy repeated.

"Yeah, SB. It's pronounced Sib and is short for Slytherin Bitch, because it's kind of a long thing to say."

"Nice." Jakey high-fived Matt.

"Yeah, it was totally better than your made-up last name." Matt shook his head like he couldn't believe Jakey. "I mean, Mr. _Steinmetz_?"

_"_Cut me some slack. It was all I could come up with on short notice." Jakey shot back.

"Summer band?" Malfoy reminded them.

"Oh, yeah, I'm giving you a ride. So let's go."

Malfoy allowed himself to be led to the car.

* * *

*3 and 1/2 hours later*

"And that's it for tonight!" the band director, Ms. Halloway said. "Don't forget, another practice next Monday."

As everyone went for their slots to put stuff away, Malfoy tried to stay close to Holly, who didn't head to her slot, but headed to the percussion section where she started talking to Carrissa. Malfoy would've followed, but David caught his eye and gave him a warning look, so he turned away and headed to his slot to put away his clarinet after 2 hours of practicing music, and an hour of marching basics. And an introduction to the rest of the marching banders.

He put his clarinet away as slowly as possible, waiting for Holly. Finally, she stopped talking to Carrissa and headed towards her slot. He was relieved when Carrissa didn't follow, instead she started talking to Tim, one of the other cymbals.

"Hola, Malfoy." Holly said as she bent down and opened her slot without waiting for him to move out of the way. She tossed her clarinet and music in, grabbed her purse and straightened up.

"Um, hi." He removed a can of fruit punch he'd bought at one of the vending machines in the school. "Does this juice taste funny to you?" he held it toward her.

She eyed him, but took the juice. "Like funny how?"

"Um, like watermelon instead of fruit punch." He invented wildly. He just wanted her to drink it.

"I don't know, does it?" she asked.

"Could you try it?" he crossed his fingers behind his back.

She shrugged. "Yeah, I guess." She took a drink. Malfoy watched her intently. When she handed the drink back to him, she had a new look in her eyes. "I think you're right about the watermelons." she said a little breathlessly.

He frowned slightly. He didn't know if that meant the potion had worked or not.

"I'm giving you a ride home, right?" David and Carrissa were suddenly standing next to Holly. David was swinging keys from his finger and looking impatient.

"Oh...yeah. Hang on, I just have to ask Draco something."

"Kay." Carrissa studied Holly, and then she and David turned and left the band room. "We'll be waiting by the car." she called over her shoulder.

"Malfoy..." Holly started, then stopped.

"Yes?" he asked, wondering what she was going to say.

"Do you want to come to Chicago with me-I mean us- on Tuesday? We can hang out and stuff..." she trailed off, blushing.

Malfoy smiled. He'd got it right. "If you're sure, of course I'd love to come."

She grinned and squeezed his arm. "Of course I'm sure!"

Malfoy grinned back and told her. "Then I'll be there."

"HOLLY!" Carrissa hollered from the door.

"I have to go." Holly smiled again and started walking away. When she got to the door, she turned and waved to him.

He waved back lazily.

Draco Malfoy was back on top.


	15. On the Bus To Chicago

**A/N: So, apparently we just decided to stay on the bus and divide it into two chapters, or else we were going to end up with like a 7,000 word chapter. Also, I didn't finish before I had to leave my friends, and I don't watch Transformers, so I couldn't write that. It was pointed out to me that there was inconsistencies in describing where Draco Malfoy's band slot is. He is in his original slot that was underneath Holly's, before she moved to a larger one on the floor, and he did try to move, but the seniors in that slot forced him back. That's it. We're off the bus!**

Chapter 14 (Part 1): We Are On The Bus To Chicago

Malfoy was back at Hogwarts, taking his exams. He was casting a Patronus charm, which took the shape of a Kimodo dragon, much to the excitement of the crowd watching him. They clapped and cheered, screaming "Go Malfoy!" He bowed, basking in the applause.

Suddenly, the ceiling of the Great Hall began to vibrate and turned a violent orange. The cheers of the crowd turned to terrified screaming, and the Kimodo dragon disappeared. The shaking spread to the whole room, so that Malfoy could hardly keep his balance.

A crack opened in the orange ceiling and a large cat leaped through it. Flames followed, licking at the enchanted ceiling and causing it to explode. As it did, the screams intensified and people began looking for an exit, but a huge eagle blocked the main exit, slashing with its talons at anyone who got too close.

People screamed and ran for the other, smaller exit, but a pure white wolf appeared out of the shadows and growled at them.

The large cat was now stalking through the crowd, snapping at everyone. It was closer now, and Malfoy could tell it was a jaguar. He ran, dodging falling rubble and sliding underneath a burning beam.

Breathing hard, he stopped and turned, and he almost fainted when he realized the cat was even closer to him now. It hissed, coming toward him, but Malfoy pointed his wand at it. He said shakily "_Ev-evan-ev…"_ trying to vanish the thing, but it snapped and got the wand out of his hand. It swallowed it in one gulp and licked its lips, eyeing him.

It pounced, landing on Malfoy and pinning him to the floor with its weight. The jaguar's face loomed above him, and Draco was sure he was going to be killed, but instead of biting him, it hissed in his face.

The jaguar kept hissing, and slowly, Malfoy realized it was saying something. He listened hard.

"_Don't trust me. I will kill you. You won't get out alive. Don't trust me._ " He hissed, over and over.

The crowd that, not so long ago had been cheering for him, took up the chant. "_Don't trust him. He will kill you. You won't get out alive. Don't trust him_."

The shaking intensified, so that Malfoy couldn't focus on anything; it was all too blurry. Flames surrounded him and the cat kept hissing "_Don't trust me. Don't trust me. Don't trust me…"_

Draco Malfoy screamed and opened his eyes. A girl was sitting over him, slapping his face.

He blinked, coming fully awake, and pushing the girl away. All he could think about was that freakin' jaguar and it's whole 'Don't trust me' thing. It freaked him out a lot more than he actually wanted to admit.

"Wh-where am I?" he asked shakily, looking around. He slid a hand into his pocket and almost fainted with relief. His wand was still there.

"Just a bus. No need to be scared of it." Carrissa sat back in her seat, satisfied that her slapping had woke him up.

He took deep breath. He was indeed on a bus, which was rattling and bouncing down a highway. "Why am I always waking up in weird places?" he muttered to himself.

"Because nobody likes you. Or trusts you." Craig glared at him from the seat in front of him.

Somebody behind him giggled. He turned around. Holly was sitting in the seat behind him. When she saw him looking, she giggled again and sank down in her seat, rifling through her bag.

"Or _almost_ nobody trusts you." Craig glared at Holly, but it wasn't filled with hatred like it was when he glared at Draco. It was more like a 'You-are-mildly-annoying-and-I-just-don't-get-why-you-like-him' glare.

Malfoy smirked. He knew exactly why she liked him. He was handsome, smart, rich, powerful, well-liked, lovable, and everything else a girl could ever want in a guy. And yeah, so, he'd given her a love potion. But she'd _already had_ feelings for him _before_ that. All the love potion had done was _strengthen_ those feelings, and that was necessary, because he didn't have time to wait around for the already-there feelings to develop.

Carrissa kicked him in the leg. "Stop smirking. It makes you look like you have some type of mental disorder, and you just smile to yourself. Or like you have bad gas."

"Ouch. You didn't have to kick me in the leg. You could've just told me." He rubbed his leg, sneering.

"But where's the fun in that?" Carrissa shrugged.

"The fun part is, I don't get hurt." Malfoy rubbed his temples, trying to erase the last traces of the creepy jaguar from his head. Holly giggled again, and he couldn't help but feel a little proud about it.

"Really? I thought the fun part _was_ where you got hurt." Craig retorted, slipping on a pair of mirrored aviators.

"Because that _is_ the fun part." Carrissa put on a pair of nearly identical glasses.

Malfoy just stared at the two of them and their almost matching sunglasses, until something hard hit him in the back of the head. He looked down at the unoccupied seat next to him. It was a gauntlet.

He whipped around. In the very back of the bus Jakey, Matt, David, and June all grinned.

"Slytherin Bitch, can I have that back? It's kind of important." Jakey called to him.

"A _gauntle_t is important? Who goes on a road trip and brings a _gauntlet_ along? Did you steal it from a museum last time you were there?"

The four of them (and the rest of the bus, but he wasn't aware of it) stared at him. "Oh, yeah." David said.

"_Psssh,_ no." June said at the same time.

Matt slapped June in the back of the head. "Yes, you did. _Remember_?"

"Yeah, I was just kidding." June announced to the entire rest of the bus.

"Obviously." A girl he vaguely recognized as being from the color guard said. "Because where else would you have gotten it from?" She added, when nobody said anything.

"Good point, Jordan." Carrissa said. She turned to Malfoy. "The only place you can get a gauntlet like that is a museum…_as far as you know_." She smirked.

"You just told me not to do that." Draco pointed out.

"Because on _you_, it looks dumb, whereas_ I_ can totally pull off this look." Carrissa said arrogantly.

"So exactly how long does it take to get to Chicago?" He changed the subject and addressed Holly.

She looked up, and seeing him, blushed. "Oh, um… like 2 ½ hours." She paused thoughtfully. "But I think we've already been on the road for like an hour and a half while you were asleep." She smiled.

"Oh, good. That eliminates over a quarter of the drive time that I'll have to be awake." He said looking out the window. "Because I was _asleep_." He glared pointedly at Dan, who was sitting next to Craig.

"Why are you looking at me?" Dan asked all fake-innocently.

Malfoy narrowed his eyes. "Oh, you _know_."

Dan looked at him blankly. "No, I don't."

"Yes you do."

"No, I _really_ don't."

"Yes, you _really_ do."

"No."

"I know what you do. I've _seen_ you."

"I think you're hallucinating."

"If I am, it's the side effects of your chloroform."

"Are you accusing _me_ of knocking _you_ out with chloroform?" Dan's voice was dangerously soft.

"Yeah, and you know it." Too late, Malfoy realized that the bus had gone silent.

"Would you like to repeat that?" David Gilbertson materialized next to Malfoy.

"Yes." Malfoy could've killed himself for saying that. David's eyes gleamed and he ran his finger along the edge of the drumstick he was holding.

"Care to change your answer?" David fingered the drumstick knife.

"Yes?"

"Is that a question?" David asked threateningly.

"No." Draco couldn't meet David's eyes.

"Want to speak up?" He put the point of the blade under Malfoy's chin, forcing him to raise his head.

"Stop it, David!" a voice rang out, and for a second, Malfoy didn't believe it.

"_What_?" David's voice sounded like he didn't quite believe it either.

"I _said_, stop it." Holly was standing up, and blocking Malfoy from David.

"I heard you the first time." David searched her face, looking for an explanation. Draco could've given him one. He'd given her that love potion, to help her fall in love, and now she wasn't going to let anyone threaten him. Despite the blade digging under his chin, he wanted to smile.

Apparently, whatever he found in her face, he didn't like. "Oh, God." He cast a stricken glance at Craig, and Craig raised an eyebrow.

"What?" he sounded a little nervous.

"N-nothing." David said unsteadily. "Listen, Slytherin Bitch, if I catch you threatening anyone else, I _will_ slit your throat. Got it?"

"Got it." It took all of Malfoy's efforts not to smile.

"Good." He sheathed the blade on his drumstick and slid it into his pocket. He didn't leave though, and it made Malfoy a little uneasy.

"You okay?" Holly asked him, her voice full of concern.

"Oh... yes, I suppose." he replied. "Just make sure he doesn't come near me again."

"All right." she said happily and sat back down behind him. "David, don't threaten Draco with your knives. It's not nice."

"Nice?" David said scathingly. "_Nice_?"

"Yes."

"Oh, boy." He took several deep breaths to calm himself.

"_I think the bitches are in love_." Dan sing-songed. "That means you're lesbian." he added to Holly.

Malfoy cringed, waiting for Dan to get jumped by David and his knives, but nothing happened. David just looked at Holly.

"If you have to explain the insult, it's not an insult, it's just a nerdy comment made by Mr. Geek." Holly replied coolly, sounding like her old self.

"My name is Dan." Dan smirked.

"Daniel?" Craig suggested. Dan glared at him, and he shrugged. "Just helping."

"Yeah, _her_. You should be helping _me_." Dan turned back to Holly. "I don't really care what you call me, as long as it's an accurate representation of myself."

"Oh, so I can call you_ Dipshit_?" she tossed out casually, half-smiling.

"_OOOOHHHH_." Everyone on the bus responded to her comment.

"Owned, Dan. You were freakin' _owned_." June called from the back.

"For the fifty-sixth time this week." Jakey added.

Dan turned to David. "Is it really?"

David pulled his phone out of his pocket and acted absorbed in it. Finally, when the entire bus was silent again, he looked up.

"She wins for... the fifty-_seventh_ time this week." David announced, and Jakey turned to Matt and June and high-fived them. Carrissa high-fived Holly, and then suddenly everyone was high-fiving everone else.

When it finally died down, David added. "And Dan's won 11 times this week."

This pronouncement was met with a lot of "Wow"'s and "Really?"'s.

"Yes, _really_."

"I'm off my game this week." Dan shook his head and put headphones over his ears.

Slowly, the bus returned to normal and David went back to his seat. After he was gone, Malfoy turned around. "What was _that_?" he asked Holly.

"One of many battles in the ongoing war between Dan and I." she told him, still smiling from her victory.

"Ongoing war?" he repeated.

"Of course. We can't stand each other." She said this matter-of-factly.

"Why?" he wanted to know why Dan could insult her and get away with it.

A hand gripped his upper arm, and he turned. Carrissa was in his face. "It's a long, bloody, complicated history, Malfoy. Do you _really_ want to know?" she asked menacingly.

"No, that's okay." he replied quickly. He didn't need to hear it if it was like that.

"Didn't think so." she released her grip on his arm. "Just do something quiet for the rest of the bus ride." She told him.

"Like...?" He didn't actually have anything to do.

"Like anything quiet, which DOES _NOT_ include jacking off."

"Jack-never mind." He'd ask Holly later, when an entire bus wasn't listening.

"You can share my iPod." Holly offered him an earbud.

"Um, okay." He didn't have anything better, and if he said no, he would probably be injured. He put the earbud in his left ear.

"Good." Holly pressed play. A loud guitar riff ripped through the speaker, and then a lot of shouted lyrics he didn't quite understand.

"What are we listening to?" He was almost afraid of the answer.

"Five Finger Death Punch." She said brightly.

He was just about to tell her to change it, because she would listen to him about it, when he caught sight of Craig. He glared angrily at him, looking ready to rip Malfoy's head off.

Malfoy sat back in the seat, defeated. Craig nodded approvingly and put his sunglasses back on.

He listened to Five Finger Death Punch all the way into Chicago, until the bus stopped.

When the bus stopped, June marched up the aisle, took hold of Malfoy's arm and pulled him to the front of the bus. The bus driver opened the door, and June pushed Malfoy down the steps, and onto the ground, where he landed in an unceremonious heap.

"Hey!" he squawked up at June, but he'd already disappeared back inside the bus. He picked himself up, and straightened his clothes, just as everyone else began pouring off the bus. Most of them appeared to be wearing body armor. "What's going on?" he asked Jakey, who was sliding the stolen gauntlet Malfoy had never given back to him onto his left hand.

"Nothing _you_ need to know about." Jakey said briefly, before turning to Matt, who handed him a sleek silver pistol, which he pocketed. They took off, joining the rest of the crowd, which disappeared into an alley.

"Now what? I'm just going to be here by myself? I don't think so!" He yelled after them.

"Of course not. You're going on a tour of the art museum with me." Holly appeared next to him.

"Oh..." He paused. He wasn't sure he really wanted to know about the war party. "Um..."

"Come on!" she pulled him along, in the opposite direction everyone else had gone. Slowly, he relaxed, knowing that she wasn't going to drag him into an ambush or get him caught up in their plan. By the time they reached the museum, 6 blocks away, he was in a pretty good mood.

"So the whole day, just me and you, alone?" He asked as she paid for the tickets and led him into the museum.

Holly started to reply, but was cut off by another voice.

"Just the three of us." Craig said, smirking at Malfoy.


	16. Just The Three of Us

**A/N: This chapter is super-long and took forever, like 4 weeks forever, because I don't know anything about Transformers, so I had my two friends write that whole part, but then I had to edit it. I am so sorry that this took so long. And only 3 things can pull me away from working on this story: Marching band, Homecoming, and That '70s show. Which all happened in the past week, and so I had no time to write at all, whatsoever. And you know how many versions of this I have saved on various computers and flash drives? Thirteen. Thirteen, people. 1-3. THIR-FUCKING-TEEN! So you can get to enjoying your like 10,000 word chapter, then.**

Chapter 15: Just the Three of Us

"_Just the THREE of us!_" Malfoy couldn't stop the way his voice rose in alarm. He made a mental note to start working on that.

"Yes." Craig replied, apparently not noticing that anything was wrong.

"_Juste nous trois!" _Holly exclaimed. Since she wasn't looking at Malfoy, but at Craig, Malfoy couldn't tell if this foreign sounding phrase was good or bad, but he assumed bad.

"We're kind of on a date." He told Craig haughtily, and slid his hand into Holly's. She looked down at their intertwined hands and smiled.

Craig kind of looked like he was going to be sick. "Yeah, apparently, I have _really bad aim!" _He yelled the last three words at the ceiling.

A rumble shook the museum, and Malfoy stepped back uncertainly, wondering what plague Craig had just brought upon them. Nobody else seemed to have noticed it though; most people were going from painting to painting, except for two guys watching their little argument, and Malfoy began to wonder if he'd imagined it. Maybe it was just an after effect of his weird jaguar dream. Or Dan's chloroform.

Draco was so involved with his imagination; he didn't catch the _What-the-fuck?_ look Holly aimed at Craig. And he also missed Craig determinedly avoiding her gaze.

He changed the subject. "Aren't you supposed to be on a date or something?" he asked pointedly.

Holly looked at him. "Yeah, weren't you going to ask out Carrissa?"

"Well, I did, but-" Craig started.

"She turned you down?" Holly interrupted angrily.

"No, I just..." He trailed off. He turned even paler.

"She did, didn't she?" Holly sounded really pissed.

"NO! I well, she was… busy. With stuff." Craig finished lamely.

"With stuff?" She asked disbelievingly.

"You _know_ what today is." He looked at her pleadingly, his eyes asking for a subject change.

Malfoy didn't really care what today was; he just wanted Craig gone. "Um, hey…" he began, but Holly cut him off.

"Yes, I _do_ know what today is, but I _also_ know what I told Carrissa…" She stopped talking, her eyes widening; apparently she'd said too much.

"I-you-_what?_" Craig stammered, going from extremely pale to extremely red in about half a second. "You _told _her I was going to ask her out?" He crossed his arms, suddenly mad. "And _then_ you told her to accept? _Do you think she wouldn't have said yes if you hadn't told her to_? Do you really think I'm _that _pathetic?" He glared angrily at her.

She didn't appear to have heard the last part. "She said yes?" Her gaze was on some point over the top of Craig's head, and she swayed slightly.

Malfoy slid an arm around her waist, partly to keep her from falling over and partly to make Craig jealous.

His angry expression melted into one of confusion, and he uncrossed his arms. "Yeah, she did. She was just busy- Are you okay?" He broke off.

Malfoy looked at her. She was pale, almost as pale as him, and her eyes were unfocused as she leaned against him. He snapped his fingers in front of her face and she blinked.

"What?" she asked. When she noticed the way they were both staring at her, she blushed and looked around. "I have low blood sugar. Diabetes runs in my family, you know." She pushed out of Malfoy's grasp and began to practically sprint towards one of the exhibits.

He ran to catch up. "You're sure you're okay?" he asked, putting a touch of worry into his voice, playing the concerned boyfriend. (Although they weren't officially boyfriend/girlfriend. _Yet._)

"Yes." She didn't look at him, and her clipped tone made it clear she didn't want to talk about it.

"So you have low blood sugar?" he pressed on. He didn't even bother checking to see if Craig was following them.

"Yes." Her tone was now icy as well as clipped.

"Do you want to tell me what's going on?" he attempted.

"No, I don't." She practically spit at him. "Because it's _NOTHING._"

"It's not nothing if you're _this _upset over it." He told her, trying to get her to turn and talk to him.

"Just go away, Malfoy. _Go away_." She turned and looked at him, her face full of pain. She took off again, actually running this time.

"Wait!" He called after her, hyper-aware of the old ladies glaring at him disapprovingly. "I didn't mean… I just…I'm sorry!" He gave his last attempt at getting her to come back.

She stopped running, but she was still walking away from him. He caught up to her. "I am."

She stopped walking, sighed, and spun to face him. "_I'm_ sorry."

"Thanks?" He didn't mean it as a question. It just slipped out like that. She had just bitched at and ditched him in an art museum. In front of other people. And he yet he acted like he didn't know why she was apologizing.

She gave him a thin smile. "For kind of ditching you in the lobby."

"Oh. Yeah, well, I suppose Carrissa's boyfriend is a touchy subject." He half-joked, trying to lighten the mood and taking her hand.

Her face, which had been thawing, turned to stone again. "No it isn't." She pulled her hand from his.

He studied her face, noting the angriness and something else he couldn't quite name in her eyes. "I didn't mean to make you mad. I was kidding." He added.

"Don't kid about that. I mean, I told her… and she _still_… and he… "She trailed off.

He hated to say anything nice about Craig, but if he didn't he was never going to get anywhere. "Craig's a big boy. I'm sure he can fend for himself."

Holly nodded. "I suppose."

"He _can_." Draco assured her. He wanted to move on.

"I know. Let's just pretend that never happened, okay?"

"Okay." He paused, looking around at the exhibit 500 Ways of Looking at Modern. "So what do you want to do?" He took her hand again.

To his relief, she smiled and squeezed his hand. "Let's go look at the miniature rooms."

"Sounds fun." He smiled back. Somewhere back in the main lobby, they must've lost Craig, because he wasn't following them, and Draco was glad. He didn't want Craig around when he was trying to execute a plan. And he'd never admit it, but he was so relieved Craig hadn't witnessed that fight.

He followed Holly down some stairs and through a twisting hallway, and suddenly they were in a brightly lit passage with glass cases set at eye level along it.

"See?" She pulled him over to one of the cases.

He looked in and caught his breath. "Wow." Inside the case was an intricately detailed miniature dining room, complete with fireplace, paintings, and statues. It was decorated in a green and white theme, and had a large window in the back, which appeared to look out on a city.

"Isn't it beautiful?" she sighed, bending closer to the glass.

"Yeah." The dining room in the case sort of reminded him of the dining room in Malfoy Manor. He bent closer to read the plaque on the outside. _English Dining Room: 1770-90._ "It's really nice." He turned his head to look at her, and realized her face was only a few inches away from his. He had a sudden urge to lean forward and kiss her.

"Nice." She echoed him, but she wasn't looking at the dining room anymore. She was looking at him. Apparently when she said wanted to pretend something never happened, she did.

He tried to mentally shake himself. He wasn't supposed to be falling in love with her. He thought she was a bitch. And crazy. Except she didn't have to be. She just chose to. And now, under the influence of this love potion, she was downright sweet. Except when she was having problems with trying to fix Craig up with her best friend. But he couldn't stop himself. He leaned towards her.

Suddenly, someone shoved in between them. He took a couple of startled steps backward. He looked around the person at Holly. He was glad to see she looked as dazed as he felt. So at least _one_ part of this plan was going _as planned_. _And besides_, he told himself, _the_ only _reason he wanted to kiss her was because it was for the_ plan.

"I brought you a candy bar." The person said.

"Excuse me?" Malfoy was a little busy trying (and enjoying, although _NOT_ from romance. From _triumph_) to kiss his mentor in the marching band, or couldn't this person see that?

"I wasn't talking to you, Sib." He realized the person that had shoved in between them was Craig. "I brought her a candy bar." He handed a Milky Way bar to Holly and looked down at his shoes. He sounded distinctly upset over seeing her and Malfoy almost kiss.

Malfoy smirked, and then remembered that Carrissa told him he looked retarded doing that, and then hated himself for bothering to think of that. "A _candy bar_?" He couldn't help but ask.

Craig glared daggers at him. "She said she has low blood sugar. So I got her a candy bar."

"Thanks." She told him, smiling.

"You're welcome." He replied shortly, still making eye contact with her.

"They're one of my favorites." She added, trying to get him to stop being so grumpy.

He looked down at her. "I know." He almost-smiled, but then his gaze landed on Malfoy again, and it dropped off his face.

"Yes, well, we should be going." Malfoy stepped around Craig, wrapped his hand around Holly's wrist, and began gently tugging her away from Craig.

"Wait, Draco." Holly protested when they were a few feet from Craig, who just watched them go.

"Come on, he's not following us." He began tugging her along more urgently.

She planted her feet, not allowing Malfoy to walk any further.

"We're ditching him." He told her exasperatedly, point-blank.

"He gave me a _candy bar_." She replied, like this was some deep piece of information.

"So?" He tried to pull her along again, but she pulled against him, staying where she was.

"So, _you _didn't." She pointed out, not realizing just how bitchy it sounded.

He realized she was right. He wanted to run back over there and scream _Obliviate!_ and make sure Craig never bothered them again. He could even throw in a Bat-Bogey Hex for good measure. If they weren't in the middle of a museum, he would've. As it was, he took a deep breath, and calmly turned to Holly. "Yeah, I'm sorry, but I didn't think of it. It's a good thing Craig was here." His voice was practically dripping with false sympathy, but she just smiled at him. Love potions could work wonders.

"It's okay. Yeah, it's a good thing he was here." Without warning, she turned and called across the museum. "Craig, you should come with us."

"Holly." Draco hissed. "I didn't mean-" He stopped talking as Craig approached.

"Aren't you guys on a date?" Craig forced a smile and a light tone. "I don't want to intrude."

_More like he didn't want to watch them flirt with each other_, Malfoy thought, and then decided that could be quite a fun time. One day wasn't going to kill his whole plan. "No, you _really_ should come." He told Craig sincerely.

"It's _really_ okay." Craig put his hands up and took a step back.

"You should. We don't mind." Holly beamed at him.

"Well… okay." Craig relented. "I have nothing else to do anyway."

"Yay!" Holly linked one arm through Malfoy's and the other through Craig's.

"What time is it?" Draco asked casually, trying to gauge how long he'd have to deal with this.

"Like…" Craig checked his watch. "1:30 P.M."

"When are we leaving?" he asked, just as casually. So he could know whether or not they were going to do something else crazy after this in broad daylight.

Craig looked at him, and Malfoy could tell he wasn't fooled for a second.

"We're leaving Chicago at 10 or so." Holly said, before Craig could lie to Malfoy.

"And we're getting back at like 1 in the morning, but we can always send you back earlier if you need your beauty sleep." Craig added snidely.

"Thanks, but it's summer, and I don't think I'm doing anything tomorrow." Draco replied, his voice just as cold as Craig's.

"I could arrange for you to be doing something tomorrow." Craig said, like he was suggesting maybe they could go mini golfing or something, but the dark tone in his voice hinted otherwise.

"Are you threatening me?" Malfoy asked lazily; he didn't believe that Craig could injure him at all. Especially not with Holly standing there.

"Yeah, actually, I am." Craig said, not even bothering to hide it.

"I could kill you really painfully with a spell, you know." Malfoy was thoroughly enjoying being back in a position of power, where he could pick on someone, and not get attacked by a drumstick knife.

"Like the Cruciatus Curse?" Craig tilted his head and smirked at Draco.

Holly put a hand over her mouth, and put her head down, like she couldn't believe Craig: A. Even knew about wizard spells and B. Would bring up a curse like that. Even though she probably didn't know it was an Unforgivable Curse.

Malfoy was at a loss for words. He'd thought that wizarding spells were treated with secrecy, protected from Muggles by Wizarding Laws. And any Muggle that learned about them was supposed to have their memory wiped.

Suddenly, the truth of what he'd said to them over the past five days sunk in. They probably hadn't known he was a wizard, but then, he'd been so careless with mentioning wizards and wands and spells…

Craig seemed to take his stunned silence as a victory in their fight. "Yeah, that's right. We know things you didn't even think it was possible for us to know." He gloated. "And you thought-"

"_Craig._" Holly said his name so sharply, that in his half-dazed state Malfoy expected the words to slice Craig's chest open and soak the front of his shirt in blood.

It didn't, but Craig's face lost the look of triumph. "I'm sorry, I forgot. He's your _boyfriend_." He practically spat at her.

She turned bright red, and looked down at the floor, mumbling "No, he's not."

"_Yet."_ Craig hissed at her.

"I… but… well…" She glanced at Malfoy, blushing even harder. "It… he… we…" she seemed unable to form a coherent thought.

"We've only just met, Craig." Malfoy recovered quickly and interjected coolly, masking his rising sense of horror.

"Like that's a factor." Craig replied, just as coldly.

"What are you saying?" He taunted Craig. He knew Craig wasn't going to blurt out how he'd helped Malfoy nick his wand back from Holly. He was also quite confident Craig didn't know his master plan.

"I'm saying you're a dirty little, filthy-blooded wizard." Craig seemed to be gearing up to completely bitch Draco out, hands curled into fists, teeth clenched, his whole body tense. Holly shrank back against the wall, even though he wasn't talking to her.

Malfoy's _pure_ blood started to boil. He'd put up with Craig's shit long enough. He clenched his fists, furiously debating whether or not to punch Craig then, or wait for Holly to step in and break it up. "I'm a pureblood." He said through his own severely clenched teeth.

"It might be pure, but it's spoiled to your core." Craig looked like he was going to deck Malfoy any second.

Draco cast a glance at Holly, but she appeared to be trying to disappear into the wall, and he realized he wasn't going to get any help from her. Abandoning all reason, he stepped forward and aimed his fist at Craig's face.

He didn't even see Craig move. One second, he was poised to punch Malfoy, the next he had him pinned to the wall. "I swear to God, Draco Lucius Malfoy, if you _ever_ take a swing at me again, your body is going to end up at the bottom of the Wisconsin River, and nobody will _ever_ know what happened. We're extremely good, so don't doubt me_. Are we clear_?" His dark blue eyes pierced through Malfoy's stone gray ones, and straight into his soul.

"We're clear." Malfoy willed his voice not to waver as he said it. This day was just not a good one. First, that annoying jaguar dream, then almost getting killed by David, then Craig crashing his date, then Craig trying to kill him. Plus realizing he'd been extremely careless with mentioning the wizarding world.

Craig nodded, apparently satisfied, but he kept Malfoy stuck to the wall. He looked like he was going to say something else, but before he could; a set of large hands yanked them apart by their shirt collars.

"What the-?" Malfoy started to protest, but the hand tightened its grip on his neck and he quieted. Twisting around, he could see that the person manhandling him and Craig was a burly security guard.

The guard force-marched them over to where Holly was still standing against the wall, looking stunned. "These boys belong to you?" he asked gruffly.

"Um, yeah. More or less." She told the guard, not looking at Malfoy or Craig.

"Could you please make sure they exit the museum_. Immediately_?" he added brusquely.

"Of course." She said, nodding.

The guard turned Malfoy and Craig to face him, keeping his death grip on their shirts. "If I catch you two starting a fight in this museum again, I will knock your heads together so hard, you won't have _any _teeth left." The whole time he talked, he was shaking them so hard, Malfoy couldn't see straight. "_Do you get that_?"

"Yes, sir." Craig and Draco mumbled in unison.

With one last shake, the guard let them go. They walked silently over to where Holly was, aware of the guard's eyes boring into their backs.

Holly smiled sweetly at the security guard.

The guard saluted her, then turned and disappeared from view.

"Holly." Craig started, but she held up a hand and kept smiling.

The guard walked past the corridor where they were standing, and, without looking at them, pushed through a door marked Employees Only.

As soon as the door swung shut, she whirled to face them, her eyes smoldering.

"Listen…" Craig began again, but she cut him off.

"What the _fuck_ were you thinking?" she demanded furiously. Without waiting for an answer, she plunged on. "Starting a_ fight_ in the middle of an _art museum_? _What the fuck is wrong with you, C_raig?"

Malfoy suddenly understood that she wasn't yelling at them; she was only yelling at Craig.

He seemed to realize this at about the same time. "You're blaming _me_?" he yelled back indignantly. "_He_ started it!"

"You provoked Malfoy, Craig!" she put her hands on her hips and glared at him. "He's a freshman; you're not. You should be ashamed of yourself!"

Craig opened his mouth, his face absolutely livid, and Malfoy mentally braced himself for a string of strong language to come flying out, but nothing happened. After a few seconds, he shut his mouth and looked down at the floor. "I'm sorry." He muttered, not sounding very sorry.

"I know you're sorry." She said, not sounding like she really thought he was sorry. "Don't you _dare ever do that again._" She added sharply. She turned to Malfoy. "Malfoy, if Craig starts fighting with you, just don't respond, okay?"

Malfoy nodded and half-smiled, happier than he'd been in a really longtime. A hot girl that was in love with him had just bitched out one of her guy friends over a fight Draco had actually started. He held a hand out to Holly. "Shall we leave now?" He asked gallantly.

She stepped towards him, with the kind of look only a love potion can induce on her face, and took his hand. "Of course."

Malfoy swept towards the exit, holding her hand with a sense of triumph.

Craig shuffled along behind them, like a little boy who's had his favorite toy taken away.

As they walked, Malfoy was so preoccupied with his grand thoughts of the future (Skip out of this marching band shit 8 months early? Check. Go back to Hogwarts and become even more revered than Harry Potter? Check. Write a tell-all memoir about his experience and become famous for recovering from the horrifying stuff that happened to him so well, and even becoming rich from it? _Triple-fucking-check._) that he didn't notice the keening sound that made the whole building resound with a quivering hum.

It wasn't until they'd stepped outside the museum, and Holly put an arm across his chest to keep him from going on, that he noticed the sound, now almost directly above their heads. "Hold up." She said cautiously, looking up and down the street.

"Up there." Craig told them.

They looked up to see a strange aircraft spinning out of control and losing altitude.

"Wow, must be intense" Craig said, clearly impressed.

"Yeah, no kidding" Holly replied.

"What are we talking about here?" Malfoy asked warily, pretty sure it had to do something with the drumline and color guard in body armor.

Neither of them answered him; they were too riveted on the ship as it crashed into a building across the street, and the words died in his throat.

The three of them just stood there, staring at it. Craig looked like he was contemplating going over there, but before he could, two figures emerged out of the smoke and rubble surrounding the crash site.

Holly and Craig sighed as if they'd been holding their breath, and Holly practically collapsed against him with relief. Without thinking, Malfoy slid an arm around her and then squinted, trying to figure out who it was, and what was going on. One of the figures saluted and he realized it was June. Craig returned the salute, and Carrissa and June took off down an alley.

"Next time, make sure June doesn't drive." Craig told Holly.

She gave him a sarcastic look, still leaning against Draco. "Like _I planned_ that?"

Malfoy was still staring at the spot where they had disappeared, contemplating whether or not he wanted to know what was going on. He finally decided to ask Holly. "Hey, Holly?" he interrupted her and Craig's continued argument about June's driving.

"Yes, Draco?" she sounded grateful for a distraction from her stupid argument.

"Did those two actually- I mean, what are they- Do we have to get involved?" he stumbled over his questions, not sure which to ask first, but finally deciding on the one that directly concerned him. He had another thought and his eyes grew wide. "Are we _already_ involved?"

"No _shit_, Sherlock." Craig said, sounding annoyed.

Holly gave him a look, but didn't say anything about him being mean, and Craig didn't change his sentence.

Malfoy chose not to be ruffled by Craig's comment. He figured any second, Muggle policeman would be swarming the place, and two boys killing each other would not be a welcome addition to the chaos.

"We're not exactly involved, per se." Holly didn't sound at all like she believed what she was saying. She tilted her head to look at him, and caught his expression. Her face fell, and defeated, she added. "_Yet_."

"Wonderful." He replied sarcastically. He turned back towards the scene across the street. It was the same as before except for that the ship was on fire now, not just the building. He became aware that there was nobody else on the street, except for the three of them. He'd been to a few accident sights, and there were always crowds of people around to gawk. But not here.

"Wow, they cleared out pretty quickly" Craig remarked, sounding unconcerned, and letting Malfoy know his unspoken observation was something worth noticing.

"Where'd they go?" He took the acknowledgement of his observation as a sign that he could ask this without looking stupid.

Craig stared at him, disbelief etched all over his face. "_Really_?" Or not.

"You haven't noticed?" Holly pointed towards the center of the city. It was in complete chaos. More strange ships were flying around. Large and _alien._ They were all shades of gray with arching sides like cages. Probably more weird Muggle ships. A tingle of unease ran down his spine at that thought. Those ships looked dangerous._ Very_ dangerous.

One that was larger than the rest caught his eye, and he wondered if that was the control ship. He almost jumped when several small metal ships "fell out" of the largest shapes shifted shapes and shot off.

An F-22 Raptor barreled past their far left. Swinging around in a full three-sixty, it shot at the trailing F-22s and shot off some missiles that flew and hit somewhere beyond their vision. Malfoy's brow furrowed_. What the hell_? He always knew Americans were stupid. Why else wouldn't they have a wizarding school? But shooting at your own militia? _Seriously_? The rouge jet jettisoned away, battering his eardrums with its sonic boom. As it went, more missiles and rapid fire rounds flew at it and away.

"Carrissa, what did you do?" Holly muttered under her breath.

"What?" Malfoy asked, not quite able to understand her.

"Oh. I don't know. Actually, I don't even care. Now that we have _nothing to do_-" Holly glared pointedly at Craig "We could suit up and check it out."

"But-" Craig started to protest but Holly cut him off.

"You got us kicked out of the museum. Don't deny that." She said.

"I wasn't disputing that… I just-" he gestured with his hands, clearly frustrated. "Forget it. Besides," he grumbled. "Museum probably isn't even open anymore"

"True," Holly agreed. "But now we need to go help out, when we _could've_ ignored this all and let Carrissa and our friends deal with it. Anyway, she'll probably need a distraction…?" This last part was aimed uncertainly at Craig.

"Yeah… of course." Craig didn't look at her as he said it.

"Okay then. That's settled." She said in a tone of voice that sounded like nothing had been settled. She pushed away from Malfoy and turned to face him, eyeing him warily. "Malfoy?"

"Yes?" Malfoy asked uncertainly, not sure what she was going to say.

"Don't get in the way" She gave him a pleading half-smile. "Please?"

After Holly and Craig changed into the same body armor as the rest of the drumline and color guard, producing them from somewhere inside her purse, she pulled out a third set, and held them half-heartedly towards Malfoy.

"Oh, no. _No way_. No thank you." He put his hands up and took a step back, protesting.

Holly opened her mouth, probably to ask him to please put them on, because she needed him to be there, but Craig beat her to it.

"This war ain't too pretty, going in our coming out." He said matter-of-factly, not even looking up from adjusting his armor. "You don't put that on, you get killed."

Malfoy looked to Holly, and her face confirmed it. "Yeah, you kind of do."

Sighing dramatically, he took the armor and began to put it on over his clothes. It was skin tight, not in a way like Spandex, but more like it molded to him. It felt creepy, like he'd grown a second skin. A second skin that didn't feel like it was going to protect him. Something hit him in the back, hard. Malfoy stumbled forward, and then whirled around.

"Sorry." Craig grinned. "Stray bullet." He shrugged loosely, causing the gun tip to wave dangerously around as if to prove his point.

"_Stray bullet_?" Had Craig just shot him in the back? What the hell was going on?

"Highly specialized body armor." Craig aimed the gun at Malfoy again, but quickly dropped it when Holly turned around.

Malfoy gave him the finger, and then began to pull on his gauntlets, examining them. It only went from his wrist to his knuckles, leaving his fingertips exposed. He also noticed a catch on the inside of his wrist. He went to press it but stopped when he saw Craig watching him expectantly.

"What does it do?" he asked suspiciously, certain that if Craig wanted him to push it, he definitely shouldn't.

Holly noticed them eyeing each other and stepped in. "Unless you want to attach yourself to a wall unnecessarily I wouldn't do that if I were you." Malfoy dropped his hand, relieved he hadn't pushed the catch. "Here, you might need these too." Holly said handing him some metal bars that were about a foot in length. They were the same silver color as the armor, but they were blue in the center.

"What are these?" Malfoy asked

"Bombs." Craig flipped one up in the air and caught it, like it was no big deal.

Malfoy paled."Bombs?"

He didn't have a problem with bombs, so long as he wasn't _holding_ one. Or being injured by one. But other than that, he could appreciate their use as much as the next person, although he believed magic had much more finesse.

"Yeah. You just push this button at the top and run like hell." Holly instructed, and then hesitated. "Try not to use one, unless it's an emergency."

"Are you saying you don't trust me?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, I trust you. It's just I don't know your skills or anything, or what's going to happen, so I don't want you to kill somebody important."

He started to protest, but was suddenly overcome with the knowledge that she actually had a really good point. "That makes sense." he said generously.

"Thanks, Malfoy." She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him.

Caught off guard, he stumbled backward a half-step before catching his balance and hugging her back.

"Ahem." Craig cleared his throat behind them. Loudly. "We kind of have to go." He tapped his foot impatiently.

Malfoy stepped away from her, trying to distance himself from the emotions swirling around in his head. Which wasn't hard, considering they were about to plunge into the middle of a war, apparently.

Holly nodded and started running towards the chaos. Craig followed, immediately overtaking her.

"Overachiever!" she called after him.

He flicked her off over his shoulder, and kept running.

Malfoy took off after them, sprinting to catch up with Holly.

"Do we have to run this fast?" he panted breathlessly.

She turned toward him, and surprise crossed her face. She slowed to a walk, and Malfoy did too, grateful. "Didn't remember you couldn't run that fast. Between you and me," she added conspiratorially, leaning close to him, "I hate running. Craig can take his running skills and shove them up his ass, for all I care."

"So, mind telling me what's going on here?" Malfoy asked, gloating in the over the fact that she'd just put Craig down.

Holly raised an eyebrow at him, as if doubting his intelligence. Then asked, in a not-so-polite tone, "Did you or did you not see the giant-ass alien ships?"

Immediately his hackles rose. He opened his mouth to protest, but stopped short for two reasons: One, telling Holly off wouldn't be productive to his plan, and two, the words "giant-ass alien ships" had kind of just sunk in. But most importantly the pissing off Holly part. He blinked. "Those weren't Mug—I mean American ships?" he asked.

Holly shook her head, "God, I forgot how irritating this can be. Especially when you don't actually know anything that would help clear up the situation."

Malfoy frowned, trying to decide if it was an insult, then relaxed when Holly smiled.

"Nothing against you," she assured. "It's just irritating when not everybody is in the know. Plus, I don't keep up with this stuff at all whatsoever, which makes it really hard to explain. So I'll give you the down and dirty version.

He _definitely_ didn't get goose bumps when she said 'down and dirty'.

"I don't know much myself, neither does anyone else in band, really; this is more Carrissa and Kaleena's thing."

"Wait, who's Kaleena?" interrupted Malfoy. He didn't know her.

"Can't say," was Holly's easy lighthearted reply. "Now let me finish the story."

Malfoy pretty much knew, just from her personality, that he couldn't pry information from Holly she didn't want to share, even if she did love him, so he said nothing, pushing the name to the back of his mind. He nodded at Holly to go on.

Holly continued, "So a while ago these alien robots, engaged in a giant civil war, came to Earth looking for something. I don't know what it was nor do I really care. I just know it was powerful and both sides wanted it, bad. So they fought over it. That's what happened in Mission City, Arizona afterwards, the U.S. government became friends with the good side. Bad guys went into hiding. Two years ago they raised this major bad guy in Egypt and almost destroyed our sun. There was a bunch of fighting, as I'm sure you can imagine."

Malfoy bobbed his head numbly. Egypt…hadn't there been something about that in the Wizarding world? He couldn't remember. He didn't exactly keep up with current events.

"Now, apparently, the bad guys are trying to do…something with their planet and enslave ours. That's why we were here today; because they've started here, in Chicago," she finished, then frowned. "I think."

Malfoy blanched, "Wait, what? We weren't here for our date?" Was that a bit of put off despondency in his tone? No, never. He, Draco Malfoy, did not get despondent. Especially not over Muggle girls.

Holly gave him a look that was part shock, part happiness at the same time. "No! We _were_ here for our date." She hesitated. "It's just it was conveniently near where we may or may not have been needed." She finished quickly, under her breath.

Draco caught it, though. Irritated because of his dejectedness over the fact that she hadn't brought him here specifically for a date and standoffish because Holly seemed to deem him _convenient_, Malfoy snorted, "Oh, yeah, sure. What could they possibly need _you_ for? Don't they have military for that?" The Sib (Slytherin Bitch, for the forgetful) then proceeded to kick himself. _Hard_. He needed her to execute his plan. He needed to be focusing on the bigger picture, not a quick satisfaction in pissing her off.

Holly stopped, facing away from him. He stopped a few steps behind. Her shoulders looked about as tense as he felt.

Something flashy caught his eye. Malfoy glanced down to her hand to see that her clarinet had appeared. Where from, he didn't know. The appearance of the instrument sent a wave of wariness over him. Band members with their instruments when they weren't playing music generally happened to be moody and pissed off and ready to kill him.

The clarinet player didn't turn, just simply said, "Malfoy, please, for the love of sixty-nine; please tell me you are not that stupid."

Wisely, he parroted, "I'm not that stupid." Although he seethed under the insult of inferior intelligence, because he didn't know what she was talking about.

She remained tense and facing away from him, though. "Good." Her voice sounded tense, too.

Shit. He'd screwed up, big-time. "I'm sorry. That was a really asshole-ish thing to say." He forced the words out. He took a few tentative steps forward, reaching out to touch her, but stopped short before he did.

She took a deep breath, tightening her grip on her clarinet. "Yeah, it _really _was."

He hesitated, considering his options. He could keep walking and hope she followed, which was highly unlikely, and would probably earn him a serious injury. Or he could swallow his pride and make her happy. He waffled for a second, and then wrapped his arms around her from behind. "I'm really, _really_ sorry."

She protested at first, but he tightened his grip, and she sighed and relaxed against him. "I know this is a lot of shit to handle, Draco, but I don't appreciate insults like that."

"I know. I didn't mean to. I mean, it was bad, but at least I snapped at you and not David or Craig."

She laughed slightly. "Yeah. They're not as forgiving as me. Now please let go of me?"

"Oh, yeah." He let go, his face burning, but she didn't notice, as she was still facing away from him.

She continued walking and Malfoy followed. He noticed the clarinet was gone.

After a few more paces he asked, "So, you brought an inter-galactic alien war to our date?"

"No. They brought an inter-galactic alien war in, on, and around our date." Holly gave him a pissed look, but Malfoy understood that it was directed at everyone else, and not him.

He fell silent once more, turning his mind to the task of imagining what the aliens looked like. Especially giant ones that used metal ships, could destroy suns, and somehow managed to lose powerful objects amongst other planets like kids' toys in a sandbox. It was daunting, to say the least.

Suddenly from behind a building to their left, a giant robot with extremely wide shoulders, a triangular body, and a round head with one beady red eye (seeing as the other was poked out) stumbled out. The robot was large; at least a good three four _stories_ high.

The robot, which seemed to have a glass capsule of some sort in his chest, moved about in a frenzied way. It jumped left, then right, swung backwards, then activated thrusters on its back to fly up, and then crashed back down, all the while screaming, "My eye! My eye!" (Amongst other less tame things, which we shall not repeat because this is rated T, not M)

The strange swirling black tattoos on the large solid parts reminded Malfoy of the F-22 they'd seen outside the museum. Was this robot that jet? He brushed the notion aside, considering it ridiculous.

Malfoy didn't see much else, besides some army personnel moving in and a young man, who seemed to be attached to a wire, which was attached to the robot's now gone eye, swinging up and stabbing the other eye with what looked like one of the bombs he'd been given, because someone dragged him into the ground behind a car by the back of his collar.

There was more frenzied screeching from the robot, shouting from humans, and an explosion that ended the screaming. A strange five toned sound, followed by the decisive roar of an engine, started up following the end of the screaming. What it all meant or was supposed to have meant, Malfoy couldn't say because he was too busy sputtering dirt and gravel from his mouth. He twisted around, and saw Holly crouched at the other end of the damaged Century Buick they were hiding behind. He didn't have a chance to grill her about her actions, because as soon as he caught her eye, she put a finger to her lips and began to crawl forward, still in a crouching position. Somehow, she managed to do it gracefully.

Malfoy had no choice but follow. So he did, if in a rather less graceful way. When he caught up to her, he whispered fiercely, "What was that?"

She stood up, facing into the heart of the city, and replied "Didn't want to get distracted by army people wanting help or robots deciding to shoot at us. Carrissa said to meet us near… this way." She pointed to her left. "I don't want to be late. That's deadly in combat."

Malfoy gaped at her, "When did she tell us this?"

In reply, Holly brushed her hair behind her left ear and tapped the earpiece he previously hadn't know was there.

"But of course," she added scornfully, "That walking Doritos Chip used an EMP, so it's not working and I wouldn't expect the grapplers to, either. The bombs still might, though." As he reached for one of the bombs tucked into his belt, she added. "Let's not test them, please."

Dropping his hand from the bomb, he studied the earpiece, _not_ noticing the fact that she was wearing metallic silver earrings that coordinated perfectly with her armor. Malfoy started after her again as she began power-walking, picking up his speed. He cursed who ever thought exercise should be a daily part of a person's routine, and wondered exactly how much the rest of the drumline had heard about what had happened at the museum. He didn't exactly want to ask, and hoped his question would be answered without him asking it out loud.

Ahead, he could see a clearing of sorts in the buildings. Guessing this was their destination; Malfoy sped up, childishly intent on beating Holly in hopes that the triumph would chase these weird thoughts from his head. Because he _was not_ falling for Holly. He _wasn't._

For his trouble, Malfoy introduced himself to Mr. Ground, face-first. Again.

Malfoy rolled over, leaping to his feet and ready to return the pleasure of hitting the ground to whoever had attacked him. Holly, however, already back on her feet from her dive at Malfoy's legs, was too quick. Before he could curse or anything, she pushed him to the ground and held him there. She covered his mouth with one hand then hissed next to his ear, "Be quiet!"

Slowly, after staring him in the eye to be sure he got the message, Holly got off him with a dark red tint to her cheeks. Somewhat pleased by this, Malfoy was less angry than he would've been normally. He grinned cheekily after her as she crept to the corner of a building, earning him a returned grin. He followed after standing on tip-toe to peek over her head.

Malfoy's blood went cold for a moment, his happiness evaporating as he took in the scene. His first thought shouted "_Holy shit_!" in his head, and then his second replied "Yeah, but isn't there something strange about this?"

There were five—no, six standing robots amongst the rubble. Four of were identical, with red visors and stout gray bodies. Even the millions of tiny pieces that made them up didn't differ in shape, making Malfoy think of drones.

Of the other two robots, one sported an oily black paint job with white forearms that, if Malfoy peered close enough, bore a police badge. Albeit a malformed one with a strange face. The motto was also changed from "_To serve and protect_…" to "_To punish and enslave_…" Malfoy shuddered, not liking this decidedly bad guy. He had long talons, unlike the still finger-like claws of the 'bad robots'.

The last standing one seemed to be the ring leader and was talking back and forth at length with the oily black one. He had a silver paint job and a pointy triangular head. Unlike the other bad guys, all angles and points, this silver one had more rounded pieces that made the body.

There were more robots, prisoners, down on their knees, hands behind their heads. These, that Malfoy had determined must be 'good' (a relative term), robots weren't monochrome like their counterparts. One was yellow and black with bits of metal parts that made it look ridiculously like a bumblebee. Another was an electric blue. This one was a strange one, with a weirdly human looking face in a creepy mad scientist-y alien-y way. The last prisoner shone flashy chrome, with large protrusions off his forearms that looked something like swords.

"What's going on?" asked Malfoy. He was suddenly grateful for the building between him and the robots.

Holly put a finger to his lips, shushing him. "Not now." She turned back around, and he tried to ignore the slight tingling sensation in his lips.

Then he noticed a man in a suit, about mid-thirties, with short wavy black hair and piercing blue eyes, yelling at the silver ring leader of the bad robots. The tingling vanished, which brought mixed feelings: good, that it was gone, but bad because this guy was obviously a bad guy. The man waved his arms around and shouted loudly, but nothing could be heard over the continued explosions in the distance. Clearly, though, he argued a strong point, since the robot appeared to listening intently. Malfoy wondered who he was.

Then one of coldest voices he'd ever heard (and this was saying something, since he'd spent time with Death Eaters, and Lord Voldemort himself) chuckled and proclaimed loudly and evenly: "Yes. I understand. No prisoners, only trophies." It came from the silver robot, who motioned to his comrades. They pushed the electric blue prisoner from his friends towards the center. The prisoners made noises of dissent, but otherwise did nothing, trapped by the guns to their heads.

The blue one spluttered, pleading, but it didn't matter to the cold oily black police robot. He was shot once in the chest, and then as he gave dying cries on the ground, once more in the head. The bad guys laughed. The rounded silver one shook his head, saying in anguish, "No Que…" The yellow one gave a mournful warble: an old radio broadcast playing, "_Good bye old friend…" _Holly's hand flew behind her and grasped Draco's. Malfoy barely realized when he gave her a reassuring squeeze.

"Damn them," Craig muttered, materializing behind him.

Malfoy's head snapped back to where Craig crouched, tense and ready, but Craig looked ahead at the scene, paying no attention to him. Malfoy turned back to see the yellow and black shoved forward and twisted around to face away from his death like a coward.

Malfoy tensed. He didn't like this anymore. He hadn't liked it before, but at least before it wasn't so serious, but now this was real. He didn't want to see another robot, a good one, blown to bits. Especially if they were supposed to be protecting him or something.

"What do we do?" he hissed. "What do we do?" He wasn't even aware he was speaking out loud.

The silver one himself came forward to execute this one. Raising his weapon, he nudged the back of the yellow and black one's head, which did nothing in return.

Holly's hand squeezed Malfoy's harder. He heard Craig curse again. Malfoy readied to close his eyes. To at least give the unknown robot some respect in this glorified murder, because he of all people could respect that.

"BUMBLEBEE!" Somebody, a girl, suddenly screamed.

The silver one's head snapped up to the noise, facing in their direction, making Malfoy think Holly had screamed; but no, it hadn't been her. In that split second distraction, a shot rang out from across the way, striking the silver one's arm. In reaction, the yellow one swung an arm around and punched the silver one. The two locked together in a battle as the remaining prisoner leapt up and began slashing his guards.

Shots rang high from the buildings around, shooting out the red eyes of the bad robots. A group of humans dropped down from the buildings all around, and poured forward towards the robots on the ground. Malfoy recognized them as a mixture of the color guard, the drumline, and army men. They rushed forward and finished off the ones who'd been keeping captives.

Carrissa walked out of the chaos, heading towards them as them men seemed to decide on a plan and move off. The drumline and color guard reduced themselves from organized killing squadrons to a gaggle of pumped-up teens. Carrissa glanced around before spotting them as Holly and Craig stood and waved. Carrissa jogged over.

"Great, you got here. I thought you guys wouldn't make it when our communication got cut off." She glanced around again. "Where's Kaleena?"

_There's that name again_, thought Malfoy. He bit his tongue to prevent asking a stupid question.

Holly and Craig shrugged.

"Here!"

There was a scrape of sneaker on stone and Holly looked up just in time to jerk Malfoy out from under the girl cascading down the building by their still conjoined hands.

The girl landed hard, and unclipped herself from the rock climbing rope. She had medium light brown hair, green eyes, and was well, short. The girl dusted herself off, facing away from them, giving Malfoy a view of the weapon that had been shoved into the waistband of her jeans. And the shoes tied in the right hip belt loop. Malfoy glanced at her feet. Yep, barefoot. Wait, why wasn't she wearing the suit everyone else was?

"So, finally decided to join the party?" asked the girl with a grin. She waved to the yellow robot who nodded in return before picking up two humans and moving off somewhere else with the other robots.

"Well, Kaleena, we didn't have much choice since these two got us thrown out of the museum." Holly said pointing at the two boys and slightly blushing at Malfoy.

"Nice." Carrissa deadpanned.

"Well," the girl, now Kaleena, continued, "Since you're here...Craig, go help the Wreckers free Optimus from those cables somewhere over there." She carelessly pointed to her right. She shook her head. "There's a reason why Autobots don't fly."

"Autowhato?" said Malfoy.

"Autobot," Carrissa interjected as if that explained everything.

"Kay." Craig nodded, running in that direction, and Malfoy hoped with a little vindictiveness that he didn't find what he was looking for and never came back.

"Now that we're together, come on," Carrissa said, walking back to the group of drummers and guard members. Holly pulled Malfoy along by their, yes, still conjoined hands.

Carrissa addressed the group with a battle strategy "Okay, guys! This war isn't over yet. We've still got to prevent the space bridge and stuff! Snares take the west side, basses and quads the north, and color guard split and take the east and the south. Let's finish this!"

Each group set off in their designated directions, chatting and socializing.

"Like you have a _PURPOSE_!" Carrissa screamed after them, and all four groups broke into jogs, some giving nervous laughs.

"What are the cymbals going to do?" asked the other girl in the cymbal line.

"We are going to help Sam and the Autobots stop the Decepticons from opening the space bridge and bringing Cyberton here, Vika." Carrissa replied

"Awesome!" a tall guy with curly blond hair and deep blue eyes jumped up in the air, clapping his hands together, who Malfoy recognized instantly as Jarid, one of the guys that had rescued him, Potter, and Weasley from the river when they first arrived.

"Wait-what?" Malfoy asked, wondering exactly what type of danger he was heading into. Holly had given him the bare minimum but it didn't include any of these foreign terms or this outlandish space bridge theory (ignoring the fact a Portkey is basically the same thing).

"You didn't tell him?" Carrissa asked Holly, although she didn't sound too surprised.

"Well," Holly said "a little bit; not much. I doubt anyone really gets what you two are talking about when you really get at it..."

Carrissa gave Malfoy a death glare. "Okay, Slytherin Bitch, listen closely, since clearly you can't understand anything even the simplest terms. We're going to this old building," she pointed on a holographic map that jumped out of nowhere, startling him "To take down the space bridge portal so Cybertron won't be transported here and our planet turned into a prison with six billion slaves."

Malfoy stared at her blankly.

"6.9 billion, Carrissa." Holly corrected her, like that was the biggest thing wrong with that story.

Carrissa sighed, rubbing her temples, "Wizards are so stupid…never mind, let's just go! And the .9 doesn't matter."

"Kind of like Craig?" Holly froze Carrissa in mid-step with her voice.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Carrissa dashed off, trailed by the cymbal line.

Holly glared after her, and then shook her head. "We'll talk about this later!" she screamed after her.

Kaleena hopped on her left foot as she shoved her right back into her shoe. Succeeding, she pulled her gun from her waistband and patted Malfoy on the shoulder.

"Don't worry too much. If you do nothing, you won't screw up," she said cheerily. Advice he supposed she thought was reassuring. It kind of made him want to punch her.

Kaleena heaved open the nearest sewer access and dropped down in, bewildering him.

Malfoy glanced at Holly, who gave him an I-don't-know-and-I've-seen-it-a-thousand-times look.

The two clarinet players then ran after the cymbals, Holly dropping his hand to run faster.

They soon came upon the old building, and Malfoy wished they hadn't. The battle was already in full swing. Some robots Malfoy recognized as the prisoners, others seemed to be new, other, good robots.

The cymbal line was battling in tandem against a particularly large foe. The way they swiftly took the robot out made him grudgingly give them some respect.

Holly led him to a quieter, less chaotic spot, and told him, "Stay here! I've got to go help Carrissa."

Malfoy would've loved nothing better than to save face, so he pulled a totally corny, cheesy move. Catching her hand, he cried, "Wait! I want to come with you!"

Holly firmly shook her head, "No, you've never done this before, and it's not a drill, or even a minor battle. It's too huge."

"But what if this is the last time we see each other?" Internally, Malfoy gagged and retched at his words. Why? Why, _why_, _WHY _did he have to endure this torture? Then something registered. What if this _was _the last time he saw Holly? He paused to think about it, and then shook his head. So what? He didn't care. Holly was just a means to an end, but it the words did the trick.

Holly blushed, but jerked her hands away. She stood there staring at him, not even moving when an explosion billowed past. She didn't even glance back when the chrome warrior, once a prisoner, with swords on his arms followed past on his wheeled feet; Kaleena on his shoulder, shooting and whooping away.

Malfoy waited, unsure what to do.

"Well," she began, "then I guess it's better I do this, I suppose."

Maybe it was because she was off balance from his words or maybe she was too emotional to think straight, but when Holly swung at his head , he saw it coming. He was still unable to dodge the blow but instead of going peacefully and instantly into unconsciousness he went fretfully and painfully. Malfoy crumpled and moaned as pain blossomed in the back of his head.

Surprise. Pain. Anger. Confusion. PainPainPain. The pain took over everything else, leaving little room for other emotions and feelings.

He went from his knees to lying on his side, confused vision blurring. A whisper made its way to him through the haze, telling him "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry." His vision turned black.

*…*

There was….a blur.

Shouting. Color. It was orange. Fire?

*….*

Voices.

Loud voices.

His name.

*….*

His vision returned in a mass of colored shapes, not black anymore. He looked up. The world swung this way and that, slamming him with vertigo. His vision blurred into focus from dark shapes into concrete skyscrapers and blue sky…and metal? Metal. In the sky across the entire horizon.

His vision faded out again, and the world spun out of focus, throwing away his understanding.

Was it perhaps the sky was falling? He didn't care. He had to stay awake, but the darkness behind his eyes was pulling him in invitingly, promising an end to the pain and vertigo. He smiled, but didn't give in.

A jaguar pounced on him, and grinned, its sharp teeth gleaming; the only thing in focus in a world of blurry gray shapes. It leaned down, almost touching his face. It was going to eat him…

Then there was nothing.


	17. Getting Kinky With It

**A/N: Yep, it's a new chapter. It's been awhile, but you know, marching band and then boredom... the good news is I started the sequel and it has like 4 chapters done. Anyway, I also started the next chapter to this story, which is a direct continuation of this chapter.**

**Chapter 16: Getting Kinky With It... More or Less**

Somebody was stroking his hair. He became aware of this first, his consciousness rising through layers of black, to feel this figured it was his mother, and since, as his sense of touch returned more fully, his body ached all over, he let her do it. He normally wouldn't let her; he hadn't since he'd turned six years old. But this time it felt good, and he was considering just falling back into a delicious sleep, when his sense of hearing caught up with his sense of touch.

He could hear singing. He figured that this, too, was his mother, until the words reached his ears: _"Motherfuckers best believe it; that you're fucking with the best." _

Since these were definitely not words his mother would sing in this lifetime, or any other, he immediately opened his eyes and tried to sit up.

This caused the world to spin, and someone gently pushed him back down. He tried to protest, but he was so tired, his eyelids were sliding closed, and his brain shut down, surrendering back to the darkness of sleep.

This time, when he came to, nobody was singing. Somebody was still stroking his hair, though. He moaned, feeling flooding into his body again, telling his brain the way his body still ached. The stroking ceased. He also became aware that he was in some sort of moving vehicle, because he could hear the engine, and every time they hit a bump in the road, his body jolted in pain.

He opened his eyes, but didn't sit up. The world was back in focus, thank God. He was staring at a bus ceiling, which shook with every pothole in the road. He slid his gaze slightly sideways, and saw Holly. He could only see her head, and he realized that his head was in her lap. She had earphones in, and was staring out the window, apparently not noticing him, but she must've been the one stroking his hair.

For a second, this made him happy, then angry, as the memory of her knocking him out returned. "Bitch." He muttered angrily at her. At least, he tried to. His throat was so dry that all that came out was a croak.

Holly turned from the window and looked down at him. For a second, her eyes looked red-rimmed and puffy, like she'd been crying, but then he blinked and they looked the same as they always did: a deep sapphire blue, and looking into them made him feel like he was falling into a lake… _no no no NO NO_, this was not happening.

"How do you feel?" she asked quietly.

He glared up at her, not responding. He was pissed from the knock-out and about the fact that he kept having these thoughts about her.

She leaned back against the seat, closed her eyes, and sighed. "I'm so sorry I knocked you out, Draco." She opened her eyes, and met his. "I really am. I mean, you just poured your heart out to me, and then I clocked you in the head and knocked you out." She paused, but he didn't interject, and she went on. "You want to know why I did that? Because you said, 'What if it's the last time I see you?' and I thought, What if it is? I didn't want to be the last thing you saw to be me getting killed by a Transformer. And I didn't want the last time I saw you to be you trying to kill one and getting killed yourself…" Her voice broke and she stopped talking. She didn't meet his gaze, but went back to looking out the window, blinking rapidly.

She was pretty much crying. A wave of panic crashed into him. He didn't know how to deal with crying girls that he needed to use. Usually he just made fun of them mercilessly (because he was the one that had insulted them enough to make them cry), but that wasn't really an option in this case. Instead, he managed to say "It's okay. Well, not okay, but I wouldn't want the last thing I saw to be either me or you getting killed by a Transformer. Just please, don't knock me out again." He said the last part sharply, so he would sound serious.

"You sound terrible." She noted, ignoring the fact the he'd (sort of, not really) forgiven her for knocking him out. "Want something to drink?"

He did, actually, but was reluctant to accept anything from somebody in the marching band, even her. She picked up the water bottle sitting next to her, and offered it to him. "Ummm…." He said, stalling.

"Sit up." She suggested, smiling. "And Malfoy, listen. Knocking you out…. That was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do in my life. I know you probably don't really understand what I did, but please, don't be mad."

He sat up slowly, grateful that the world remained in focus, and settled into the seat next to her. It was almost dark out now, which meant he'd been out for at least a few hours. He took the water bottle from her, and unscrewed the cap, but didn't take a drink. "I'm not mad, exactly." Absolutely livid was more like it. "I just… I guess I don't understand, like you said. But I'm not mad."

With a start, he realized that he wasn't angry with her. All his anger was aimed at Craig and Carrissa, who had ruined his entire day. If Craig hadn't gotten them kicked out of the museum, they wouldn't have had to help Carrissa fight crazy robots and Holly wouldn't have been forced to knock him out.

She exhaled, relief written all over her face. "Are you going to take a drink or not?" she asked gently.

He clenched his hand around the bottle; lifted it to his lips. He took a tentative sip, wondering exactly what they could've spiked it with. It tasted fine, but that didn't mean anything. He lowered the bottle.

Holly grabbed it from him and inhaled like half of it. "I was really thirsty." She said, a little sheepishly, grinning. "And you know, if you hadn't ducked, you wouldn't have had so much trouble passing out." She added chidingly.

He grinned back lazily, confident that if she had just drunk it, the water was totally okay, although he bristled at her last comment. He was angrier with Carrissa and Craig, though, and twisted in his seat, sending waves of pain down his body.

In the back of the bus there was body armor and bags strewn all over the floor and seats. Members of the guard and drumline were sprawled in the seats, asleep, or listening to iPods.

He squinted, trying to make out individuals in the deepening twilight. He couldn't even see all the way to the back of the bus, but in the seat behind him, he could make out a long lean form with short wavy hair, stretched out along the length of two seats, legs spanning the aisle. Craig. He appeared to be asleep; his breathing deep and even. So the little bastard had made it back from doing whatever the hell Kaleena had sent him off to do.

Malfoy turned back around, because it was hard to stay mad at somebody who could look that innocent asleep. In the seat across from them, he could see Carrissa, with headphones in and eyes closed.

He turned back to Holly, since bitching out those two didn't seem like an option at the moment. She was back to looking out the window and listening to music. When she saw him watching her, she offered him an earbud.

He took it, wondering warily what kind of crazy music she was listening to now. It was paused, however, and she handed him her iPod as well, indicating he should pick a song. He scrolled through artists, but since he didn't listen to Muggle music, he didn't recognize anything. He finally chose the artist Adam Lambert, and picked the first song from the list.

A drum roll hit his ears, and then the words:

_So I got my boots on_

_Got the right amount of leather_

_And I'm doing me up with the black kohl liner_

It was that stupid song that David had been playing in his car the other day. He reached for the iPod to change the song, but stopped when he felt something cold against his ankle. He froze, waiting, but didn't feel anything else.

_There's a thin line _

_Between the dark side and the light side, baby tonight_

_It's a struggle _

_Gotta rumble_

_Trying to find it…_

He realy hated this song. He dropped his hand to the iPod and something moved around his right calf.

_From New York to L. A. getting high rock and rolling  
Get a room trash it up 'til it's ten in the morning  
Girls in stripper heels, boys rolling in Maseratis  
What they need in this world is some love_

This song was going to be the death of him, he could tell right now. Nothing good happened when it was on. He sat in silent terror, feeling the thing slither its way up his leg, moving along his inner thigh, up to….

Draco jumped out of the seat, a high-pitched scream working its way out of his throat. He fell into the aisle, kicking his legs furiously.

He wasn't even aware of every other person on the bus leaping to their feet and drawing weapons, looking for an enemy to battle. He was too consumed in his own terror, writhing on the bus floor, shrieking endlessly.

It wasn't until someone came up the aisle of the bus behind Malfoy, picked him up by the ankles, and shook him mercilessly that he quit shouting. He was too afraid of biting his tongue off.

Finally, to the general disgusted interest of the other passengers, a small green snake dropped out of his jeans and onto the bus floor. The person dumped Malfoy roughly into the seat in front of Holly, knocking the wind out of him.

"Jesus _Christ_." Dan spat snidely, angrily stalking back to his seat.

Draco sat up dazedly, still in shock. The entire bus was looking at him, most of them laughing.

"Hey, Malfoy, I thought you were in Slytherin!" Jakey called tauntingly.

"Isn't the serpent their mascot?" Matt added in the same snide tone. "So shouldn't you like snakes?"

"That only applies to guys." June scoffed. "Not girls." Jakey and Matt high-fived June at this insult.

"Break it up guys; you're going to make her cry." David said all fake-sympathetically.

He opened his mouth and said shakily, "Someone put a snake in my pants." This pronouncement was met by a lot of angry sighs and derogatory snickers.

"Why would anyone want to put a snake in your pants, Malfoy?" Carrissa asked, annoyed.

"Hell, I don't know. Because they all hate me?" He replied sarcastically.

"We do not _all_ hate you." Holly said indignantly.

"But most of us do." Craig added.

"_I_ hate you." June, Dan, Jakey, Matt, and David all volunteered at the same time.

"Thank you for helping." Holly probably glared at them, but since he couldn't see her, he couldn't tell.

"Who did it?" Malfoy demanded, standing on the bus seat and shouting, effectively cutting off all other side conversations.

"I don't know." Carrissa shrugged. "Who cares?"

"I do. Because obviously somebody has a really big problem with me being here, and I'd like to know who it is." He glared around at the bus. He got a lot of defiant stares back and one infuriating smirk from Craig.

And suddenly he knew. It had been Craig. That little mother-fucking bastard. He pushed his anger down, determined to get Craig back later, when he had time to detail a plan that would work against Craig best.

"All right, fine. Don't tell me. I'll find out, though." He added menacingly and sat back down.

Holly leaned forward. "I'm sorry, Malfoy."

"I'm going to kill him." He hissed angrily.

"Kill who?" she asked confusedly.

"Craig." His voice was low and full of fury.

"_Craig?"_ She sounded scared and incredulous, her voice an octave higher than usual. "Why?"

He sighed heavily and leaned towards her, wary of being overheard. "He put the snake in my pants." He whispered.

"He _did?_" She asked nervously. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. He hates me, he was right behind me, and I know he'll be out to get revenge on me for –" He caught himself.

She eyed him sharply. "For _what?_"

"Nothing." He hesitated a second too long and she jumped on it.

"What did you do to him?" Her voice had returned to normal, pitch wise, but was still angry in tone.

"I promise, I didn't do anything." He said solemnly, looking right at her. The whole time he was thinking _You are so stupid, so stupid, you don't even know, call me out bitch, you have to know something about what I did,_ something.

She seemed to accept his words at face value, though, sighing and returning to her quest for evidence for Craig's crime. "You're absolutely sure it was Craig?"

He was sure. "Of course it was him. He had all the motives to do it, and all the resources. He probably just stretched his arm out and dropped it on my shoe."

"He could've." Holly looked grim at the idea of Craig doing something like that. "I just… I don't know. He would, I guess. But…" She shrugged helplessly.

"But you've known the bastard for longer than I have and he couldn't possibly do anything like that?" Malfoy suggested mockingly. "And he's really nice when you get to know him, too, I'm sure."

"No." She said right away, surprising him. "He would've done it. He can be a bastard, I know. I just thought…" She trailed off thoughtfully.

"That maybe it would be like Dan or somebody?" He wanted to know what she thought she knew about Craig that made her so sure he hadn't done it.

"No, Dan's more up front and violent about everything. He'll talk behind your back, insult you to your face, make annoying snide comments, fist fight, et cetera, et cetera."

"Good to know." He had that pretty much figured out, anyway. "So, then, I'm just going to mortally wound Craig sometime soon, okay?"

Holly laughed. "I'd like to see you try." She became suddenly sober. "It'd be challenging, but I suppose it could be done." Her eyes gleamed and Malfoy felt uneasy.

"You'd just pull someone down and mortally wound them just for a challenge?" He was in trouble if he ever broke up with her, which was bad, because that's exactly what he was planning to do.

"No, I'd set them up first, and then knock them down. But only if they deserved it. Otherwise I'd be just like my sister Hannah, setting things up and then pulling them down in humiliating ways just for my own amusement. No, that's just wrong, doing it for your own gain."

"Doing what for your own gain?" Carrissa sat down next to Holly.

"Lying to people." Holly said pointedly, jumping topics.

"Oh come on, you already lectured me about that for like two hours after the battle _and_ you made me miss the debriefing because of it. Can't we just let it go?"

"Not until you promise."

"Fine, if it'll make you shut up. I promise to do something with Craig this weekend and if I don't, then I automatically get booted down the list to Dan Geek as my assassin partner."

Holly nodded, satisfied. "That'd suck ass, that would, considering it'd put me with David Gilbertson, and we'd be unbeatable."

Draco looked between them, confused.

Carrissa noticed. "So, basically, dumbass, every time we have a mission, we get a partner. We get tested every 6 months on different skills, like stealth, long-range combat, short-range combat, peace negotiations, problem solving, creativity, stuff like that."

Holly broke in. "Then, depending on the results, we get partnered with whoever has the opposite skills we do. It makes people less vulnerable in a fight situation. Right now, I'm with Carrissa and we're at the top of the list in our respective areas. If one of us didn't test well in an area next testing period, we'd be moved apart. That also works for improvements, although with the top of the list, there's not really anywhere to go." She paused for a second.

Carrissa took advantage of the opening. "And you can't just get pushed down the list for no reason, unless you have a pre-arranged agreement with a certain secret group. Holly's the leader for all of Wisconsin, although places like Greendale and Waukesha North are like, rebels, or think they are, anyway."

"First of all, do I have to do this? Second, if David Gilbertson is so unbeatable, then why isn't he top of the list? And third, what time is it and where are we?" Draco threw out his top three questions.

"That's actually four questions." Great. Now Craig was joining in on the conversation. Malfoy glared at him sullenly and Craig looked away. And now he was feeling guilty apparently. Whatever.

Holly acknowledged Craig with a "Yes, that is four questions, but I wouldn't talk right now," and then turned to Draco. "So, to go backwards, we're in Madison, which means we'll be back to the school in like a half hour or so. It's like 1:32 A.M.; we're running a little late. No, you don't have to play Assasin, it takes years of training, although you'd probably be okay at it. And David Gilbertson would be top of the list, but he refuses to be tested, and if you aren't tested you don't get to be an assassin. I'm pretty much fucking the rules and letting him be one anyway, because he's so good. He just wants to be an unknown, which I could understand."

Craig huffed in indignation. "More like, David can't be tested, because when your aunt was the leader, she told David 'No, because you aren't a band legacy.' And then when she retired like five years ago and moved to Texas and you became leader, the boards said no, because she'd given them a reason like 'He is prone to seizures and fits of madness.' So now they won't even test him and it's a bunch of bullshit."

Carrissa smiled. "Yeah, that wraps it up nicely."

Holly rolled her eyes. "Okay, so maybe my aunt was kind of stuck-up and all, but David did say it would make him a silent killer. He's not registered, so nobody would have his records. That's valuable."

Malfoy shook his head. "So, there's a network of assassins and spies in your band. Are all bands just covers?"

Carrissa shook her head. "Oh, no. Ours is the hometown of the network in the U.S., so there are a lot here that happen to be in band. Some of our band members aren't and most bands only have like 1-3 members, at most."

"You guys know a lot of combat moves?" Malfoy asked, interested in spite of himself. Better to know what they could do, than to underestimate them.

"Dan Geek would be the expert on that." Craig said.

"Does everyone call him that?"

"Call him what?" Craig asked confusedly.

"Dan Geek." Malfoy thought it was obvious.

"Well, yeah. It's his name." Carrissa raised her eyebrows.

"Really?" He asked curiously.

"Yeah. Gieck. You know, _G-I-E-C-K_, pronounced geek? It's his last name." Holly said contemptuously, annoyed to be speaking of Dan.

"His last name is pronounced geek?"

"Yeah and everybody calls me that, asshole, so don't think you're clever by using it as an insult." Dan stalked up the aisle and sat down next to Craig.

Malfoy groaned inwardly. Since everyone had woken up – he conveniently forgot that he was the one that had done the waking – apparently the most interesting thing happening on the bus right now was this conversation.

"Nobody who calls you that is clever, Dan." Carrissa said. "Or at least, calling you by your last name isn't an indicator of cleverness."

"It _is_ ironic, though." Holly murmured.

"What?" Dan snapped. "What did you just say?"

"I was just commenting on how Craig seems to be avoiding the conversation." Holly said smoothly, no hesitation in her voice.

"I'm not avoiding it; it's just boring." Craig rested his head against the back of Holly's seat.

"_I'm_ boring?" Dan asked incredulously and sharply.

"No, but this discussion on your last name is. We've been over the subject at least 12,538 times." Craig looked at Carrissa. "So let's change the topic."

"Oh, I've got a topic." Carrissa said, staring straight back at Craig, who paled visibly, even in the dark light. "Let's discuss…"

Malfoy watched Craig curiously, wondering what Carrissa was going to bring up that was so sensitive.

"… Tomorrow's meeting." She finished and Craig slumped down in the seat, relief visible in his stance and written all over his face.

"Today's meeting." Holly corrected her absently; she was also watching Craig.

Dan started to say something, and then broke off, following everyone else's gaze to Craig.

Craig seemed to feel the heat of their stares because he looked up, and seeing everyone watching him, asked uncomfortably "What?"

"Nothing." Carrissa said and everyone else immediately dropped their gazes.

"So, today's meeting." Craig said a little overenthusiastically. "What are we talking about this time?"

"I was going to cancel it, actually." David climbed over several seats gracefully and sat next to Holly. "Seemed kind of pointless to have it when we were going to discuss that drum part that Steve already removed from the music."

"True." Dan agreed. "What about…?" He glanced pointedly at the back of the bus.

David didn't even turn around to see. "Taken care of. Matt is not allowed to go near the energy drinks for a week."

"I guess that's a start." Dan grumbled, although he was clearly satisfied with Matt's current punishment for who-knew-what?

"What are we talking about over here?" Jakey loped up the aisle and settled in next to Carrissa. "Seems intense up here."

"We're kind of out of topics at the moment." Holly stretched her arms over her head. David reached over and poked her in the ribs. When she didn't respond, he started tickling her. She shrieked, drawing stares from the still-awake drummers and color guardists, and brought her arms down, karate-chopping his wrists.

"Ouch." He muttered, rubbing his right wrist.

"Sorry." She replied, not sounding sorry.

"Fuck you." He began rubbing his left wrist.

Her eyes widened. "Oh, no."

Carrissa laughed and then dove at Holly, tickling her. "That's what you get."

Holly tried to twist away, but she was trapped. "Stop it!" She shrieked. She attempted to push Carrissa off, throwing her into Jakey.

"You're gonna pay for that." Jakey flew at Carrissa, pinning her down.

Dan turned to Craig. "Shall we?" He asked formally.

Craig shrugged. "We shall."

And with that, their section of the bus became a giant wrestling match. Malfoy could barely tell who was fighting whom, since it seemed to change every five seconds.

David stood up on his seat, turning to leave, but Holly caught him by the ankles. "Seems to me you started this, Douche." She pulled him down into the mess.

Draco sat on the edge of his seat, wondering exactly what he should do. He watched as Craig began to separate himself from the rest, as if making to escape up the back of the bus. Something dawned on him, and before the idea in his head was fully formed, he'd already taken a flying leap at Craig, knocking both of them to the ground.

"Fuck." Craig groaned.

"You deserved it." Malfoy hissed at him, pinning Craig's hands above his head with his left hand. He made to punch Craig in the face with his right, but Craig bucked, throwing Malfoy over him, where he landed flat on his back in the aisle.

Matt and June looked down at him from adjacent seats above him. "That looked painful." Matt told him. June nodded in agreement.

Draco started to get up, but before he could, Craig crawled up the aisle and slammed him back down. "Didn't I tell you never to try and punch me again?" He growled, twisting Malfoy's right arm behind his back, forcing Malfoy to lie at a painful angle, since Craig was sitting on his legs and his upper body was being twisted.

"You did, but I figured I'd make an exception just this once." He struggled to free his left arm, but it was pinned beneath him. Craig twisted his right arm harder and Malfoy jerked, kneeing Craig in the groin. His grip on Malfoy's arm slackened and Malfoy took advantage, pushing Craig up against one of the seats.

"How'd that feel?" He asked maliciously, digging his fingernails into the exposed skin where Craig's shirt had ridden up over his hips.

"More than it would've if I'd done the same to you." Craig panted, removing Malfoy's left hand from his side and jerking him to the side. Malfoy spun and hit a sit further down the aisle.

Before he had a chance to react, Craig was on top of him, holding him to the floor with his body while he used his arms to swing at Malfoy's face.

Malfoy moved his head and Craig's fist slammed the bus floor a half inch from his face. "You play dirty." He gasped, fighting to breathe.

"Whatever makes you feel better." Craig retorted, shifting his weight and driving his elbow into Malfoy's kidney.

This also happened to free Malfoy's left hand, and clawed at Craig, sinking his fingernails into his lower back.

Craig twisted in pain, and Malfoy's fingernails dug tracks across Craig's right hip and down to the waistband of his jeans before he let go.

And then his weight was gone. He looked up to see Dan holding Craig in a full nelson and pushing against a seat, effectively restraining him.

Almost from far away, he heard somebody scream and then before he could react, Carrissa kicked him in the gut. He doubled up, moaning in pain, tears blurring his vision. By the time he recovered, Holly had come up the aisle to stand above him.

She gave him a look that was disappointed, but not angry. In fact, it was almost blank. Wordlessly, she turned to Dan. "Let me see." She said her voice devoid of emotion.

"I really don't think-" Dan protested, but Holly cut him off.

"Let me see." She snapped, angry this time.

Instead of continuing to argue like Draco expected him to, Dan let go of Craig and backed away, his hands up as a gesture of surrender. "Be my guest."

"I wouldn't deign to come in your house, but thanks for the invitation." She stepped towards Craig, who was breathing heavily.

"I'm sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. I'm really, really sorry." He started to say when he saw her standing there, over and over, until he was practically hyperventilating the words.

"It's okay." She told him, and he shut up, as that clearly wasn't the response Craig had expected from her. Truth be told, Draco had been expecting another bitching-out session as well. "What happened?"

"I-well-we got into a fight." Craig started to explain, eyeing her warily. The rest of the chaos had stopped when Draco and Craig had stopped fighting, and now half the bus seemed to be waiting for his answer.

"And you got hurt?" She asked, and Malfoy swallowed against a sudden unwelcome lump of guilt in his throat. Craig had deserved it.

"I'm fine. I'm not really hurt." Craig took a step backward to evade her, but he hit the seat.

"Are you sure?" She asked sweetly.

"Sure I'm sure." He said, holding up his hands to ward her off.

"Good." She sat down.

"Yeah." He agreed, obviously confused by the turn of events.

Malfoy wondered, now that his desire to attack Craig had abated, why Craig wasn't milking it and trying to make him look bad.

"I'm considering getting my belly button pierced." Holly said unexpectedly, and everyone stared at her, including Craig, who lowered his hands, surprised.

As soon as he did, she leaped at him, pulling his shirt up to expose his abdomen. He tried to stop her, but Dan caught his arms and held him back and five deep cuts that began on his right hip bone and then trailed across his torso for about six inches, ending just above his jeans were revealed. All five of the cuts were oozing blood and could be clearly identified as where Malfoy had clawed him during their fight.

"Liar." She and Craig snapped at each other in unison.

"Mine was for a good cause." She defended. "Get me the first-aid kit."

Somebody threw it from the front of the bus and soon she was bandaging his cuts while he glowered down at her, still angry at being tricked.

Most of the bus seemed to be absorbed in watching them, except Carrissa who was edging towards Malfoy. "Good fight." She said.

He stared at her. She didn't even sound angry. She didn't sound happy, either, but she definitely wasn't angry. "I guess." He said cautiously, not trusting her.

"You might want to wash your hands before anyone else sees them." She added.

He looked down at his hands, surprised to find that they were covered in dried blood. "Mudblood." He muttered distractedly.

"Quite." Carrissa half-smiled, and reached out a hand to hold onto the seat. A split second later, the bus screeched to a stop, throwing Malfoy forward and onto the floor.

Draco pushed himself up with disgust, wondering when that was going to stop happening. There was another screech as the door opened and, seemingly as one mass, the entire drumline and colorguard swept up the aisle, paying no attention to Malfoy as they passed. As a result, he had accumulated quite a few bruises and scrapes by the time they were all off the bus. And of course he was the only one left. He grabbed a water bottle abandoned on a seat and poured it over his hands, washing the blood off.

As he began to make his way off the bus, someone came up the steps. "Oh, I thought maybe you had gotten trampled by the crowd." Holly said.

"I was." If that's what she wanted to talk about, he was happy to comply.

"Oh. Well, did you get into a fight with Craig? Because he just kept saying 'we' and wouldn't tell me who he was fighting."

Craig wasn't ratting him out? Why? Not that he was complaining, but still. Suddenly, he remembered that he himself had promised Craig help with his love life. And maybe, just maybe, if Draco apologized to him, he could get some unintentional help with his plan. He didn't like Craig at all, and using him was a good option for someone with that type of knowledge. Because he knew about Holly, at least more than Malfoy did, and he might share some details about her life that would help Draco with his plan.

He was getting so caught up in his new idea, that he didn't even realize that Holly was still waiting for an answer to her question. "No, no I don't know who he was fighting with; it might've been June, though." He said hastily and practically sprinted up the aisle, leaving her behind.

Craig was still loitering in the parking lot talking to June when Malfoy found him.

Catching sight of him, June whispered something to Craig, who laughed. Then he said something else that earned him an angry punch in the arm from Craig. June shook his head and walked away then.

Malfoy caught up to Craig as he was about to get in his car. "Listen, I remembered something." He started in.

"Excuse me?" Craig's voice could've frozen the entire river they had fallen into when he first arrived.

"I said-"

"Oh, I know what you said. I just can't believe you have the nerve to talk to me after what you just did."

"I'm sorry about that, but you know, if you weren't such a failure at love, you wouldn't have been there." Malfoy blurted out something that had made a lot more sense in his head.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just that I promised to help you, remember? I don't break promises. When I said I would help you get Carrissa, I wasn't lying."

Craig was now staring at him in disbelief. "You want to help me with my 'nonexistent love life?'"

Malfoy shifted uncomfortably. "I promised." He mumbled.

"No, you want to know about Holly, and this is convenient to helping you. It's more of a you help me, I'll help you situation." Craig voiced this with complete certainty.

Now it was Draco's turn to stare. "You figured that out?"

Craig shrugged. "Well, it wasn't rocket science or anything. I _did_ spend the whole day watching you guys hit on each other."

"I did not-" Draco started to retaliate, but Craig cut him off.

"You did." He said matter-of-factly.

"Do we have a deal?" Malfoy asked, getting bored.

Craig considered. "I should slam your head in my car door for what you did to me."

"So…?"

"We have a deal." Craig reached out a hand for Malfoy to shake.

Malfoy did. "So you're not going to slam my head in the car door, then?"

"No, I'm not." Craig said, opening the driver's side door. "I'll just have to content myself with this."

The last thing Draco thought was _It's probably a bad thing that this is becoming normal._ And then, once again, in a very cliché fashion that is sure to be used another times in this story, so you better get used to it, he blacked out.


	18. That's Confidential Don't Talk

**A/N: So yes, another boring chapter. But screw you. I really wish you guys could've read that chapter from Craig's point of view. It would've been so much better. Oh, well. You'll all know his secrets soon enough.**

**Chapter 17: That's Confidential (Don't Talk)**

Malfoy woke up to the sound of someone cursing. It was pretty colorful cursing, too. He sat up; surprised to find his body didn't protest at the movement, even though it was the third time he'd been knocked out in 24 hours.

He realized he was in his hotel room, with its tastefully boring beige and cream décor. He was lying in the bed that he had claimed as his, and although Potter's bed was messy, it clearly hadn't been slept in. So who was in the room with him? He jumped out of the bed and sprinted into the kitchen.

Craig was standing in the little kitchenette making box macaroni-and-cheese. He was swearing under his breath, almost in a rhythm and Malfoy realized he wasn't just spewing profanity; he was singing along to the iPod plugged into his ears. Most of the lyrics contained at least one swear word, often in a creative insult to people in the music industry.

"_Johnny's taking heads off of all faggots who hate_." He muttered, stirring cheese powder onto the noodles. _"I'm like a god…"_ He broke off abruptly when he saw Malfoy, pulling the earphones out and stuffing them in his pocket. "You're up later than I thought you'd be."

Draco glanced at the clock to see that it was about half-past four in the morning. "Shouldn't you be at home or something?" He asked, suddenly conscious that he was barefoot and in a really old T-shirt and pair of pajama pants, that he _definitely_ hadn't been wearing before.

Craig noticed. "Not my idea. It was all Holly's. And you must have noticed that it's happened before."

Malfoy realized with horror and panic that it had indeed already happened twice.

"I thought so. And you also had to have noticed that I knocked you out, which makes me primarily responsible for you. So I had to put you in my car and I wasn't going to take you home. Do you even know how many questions my mom would ask?" He put on a high falsetto. "Craig, who's this boy? Craig, do I know him? Craig, you're late, what were you doing with him? Craig, why is he unconscious? Craig, are you gay? Craig, why didn't you tell me? Craig, are you coming out now? Craig, I think you should have done so before your boyfriend passed out while you were doing who-knows-what. Oh, my God. _Are you still a virgin?_ I'm calling your father. And the cops. And this boy's parents. You are _sorely_ misguided, young man." Craig's face got more and more pinched with every word he said.

"Okay, so why are you still here?" Malfoy was feeling increasingly self-conscious. "And where's Harry Potter?"

"I'm still here because you promised to help me." Craig hesitated.

"Really?" Malfoy raised an eyebrow.

Craig scowled. "And then Holly made me promise to stay because I knocked you out."

"Someone get in trouble?" Draco taunted.

"No. She didn't really even seem to care." Craig gave the macaroni a particularly vicious stir. He was lying and Malfoy knew it. "But I also needed your help."

"At 4:30 in the morning?"

He shrugged. "I'm not busy today."

"Nobody's busy at 4:30 in the morning." Malfoy pointed out.

"Unless you work the late shift or the really early shift." Craig retorted. "Anyway, but after this I can just go home and do nothing, so I thought as long as I was already here we could get started."

"You are really eager, aren't you?" Draco wondered about the sudden change in attitude.

"Yep." Craig just chose not to delve into that subject. "The macaroni's done." He dumped it into two bowls and set them both on the counter. "So let's get going."

Malfoy dragged a stool over to the counter. He picked up his spoon, swirled the noodles around the bowl, and then set the spoon down. "I'll start."

"As in, you'll ask your questions first or you'll give your answers first?"

"Mmm… well, let's start with my questions."

Craig didn't look at all surprised. "Of course. All right, shoot."

Suddenly Draco found that he couldn't think of a single question. "I-well-hey." He said, remembering something. It wasn't quite a question pertaining to Holly, but he'd forgotten to ask her the answer. "What's jacking off?"

Craig dropped his spoon and started coughing. "I cannot _believe_ you just asked me that." He finally managed to choke out. He got up, eyes watering and poured himself a glass of water. He took several deep gulps and set it down. "I'm going to go puke up all that macaroni – that question made me sick – while you look up the answer." He pulled his phone out, punched a few keys and handed it to Malfoy. "There you go. Don't ever mention that again unless it's to insult me." He left.

Malfoy scrolled through the results with a sense of nausea. By the time Craig came back, his question had been thoroughly over-answered. He handed back Craig's phone silently.

"So." Craig drummed his fingers on the countertop. "Think of a question yet?"

"Why is she the head of the assassin organization in Wisconsin?" He blurted out.

"Well, you had to pick a hard question, didn't you?" Craig considered the question. "You know her sister, Hannah?" He finally asked.

"Heard of her. Briefly." Malfoy replied.

Craig nodded. "Yes, well. So you have to be born into that, you know. Except David Gilbertson. But whatever. You're born into it and since Holly's family was the leader, she was next in line, as the oldest child. Unless, of course, she didn't want it, and it would've passed on to Hannah."

"Holly's the oldest?" Malfoy interrupted.

"Yes. Now, you probably don't know this, but you start training when you are four years old for the entrance tests when you're eleven. Holly never really showed a big interest in the business, but Hannah did. She turned four, begging to start training. And she trained, all the time. This was when she still lived here and went to school with us.

"Assassin was everything to her. When she took practice tests, she always scored the highest, but it was never good enough for her. She had to be perfect. Eventually, of course, Holly and Hannah turned eleven. Hannah signed up for her test that day and Holly agreed because her aunt asked her to, just in case she wanted to join up later."

"So this explains nothing about my original question." Malfoy felt the need to point out, although the story was interesting.

"Shut up. I'm telling the story." Craig glared at him across the counter. "Okay, Holly agreed to take the test just in case. Hannah took the test first, all excited and eager. She scored extremely high, the highest in years. She was so proud and happy and fully prepared to take over when she turned 18."

"So what happened?"

"Holly took her test."

"So?" Malfoy was kind of wondering where this was going.

"So she got perfect scores in every area of the test. Nobody had ever done that before. Everyone was freaking out and celebrating and praising her as the next – and sure to be greatest – leader the organization had ever known. And Hannah-" He hesitated. "Hannah was crushed. She had worked for seven years to achieve the highest scores and be in line to take over. And then, Holly, who had never trained a day in her life, came out and got perfect scores all around. She didn't try."

"That must've been painful to endure everyone praising Holly when Hannah had tried so hard." Malfoy thought of his own experiences with Hermione Granger and Harry Potter.

Craig shrugged uncomfortably. "I guess. But see, the thing is, Hannah was a bitch. She hated everybody except the people that were already in the Assassin program. And then she only liked the good ones. In fact, she had a monster crush on David Gilbertson, even though he wasn't in the program, but he was so good, she knew he deserved to be. She spited the rest of us, believing that we were all below her. So nobody really cared when Holly beat her out."

"Except Hannah."

"Exactly." Craig agreed. "And it unhinged her. She'd always been jealous of Holly, although she tried not to show it. But Holly had friends; Hannah had minions who were afraid and in awe of her. Holly had everything Hannah wanted, including her eyes."

"Her eyes?" Draco asked incredulously.

Craig half-smiled. "Yeah. Hannah's eyes are a muddy brown that she always hated. So the day she turned 14, she got blue contacts to match Holly's natural color. And then they looked almost exactly the same. Anyway, I think something broke inside her when Holly beat her out in something she didn't even want in the first place. She decided she _hated_ Holly. And then, one night when they were almost 14, Hannah told Holly that her rule was going to be short, violent, and oppressive, but that Hannah would remedy that when Holly died. Their aunt was freaking and then, eventually, Hannah was sent to live in Greendale with distant relatives that no one really talks about. But Hannah still hates Holly."

Malfoy just stared at him. "She tried to undermine her?" He finally asked. He never would have expected that.

"Yes." Craig didn't elaborate anymore. "And if you ever get the chance to watch her plan out a mission, you'll notice that she never has anyone arranged to be killed. She could, quite easily, but she prefers not to." He paused. "Don't ever tell her I told you this, okay?"

"I definitely won't." Malfoy wondered if Hannah had ever managed to achieve her goal or if she'd been thwarted or just given up.

"Good. Now, you get to help me."

"But I only asked one question!" Malfoy protested.

"But it was a long question. And after you help me, you can ask more if you feel like it."

"Fine." Malfoy gave in reluctantly. "So I'm guessing you have no experience with this at all."

Craig shrugged. "I could argue, but we'd just be wasting our time."

That threw Malfoy for a second, although he tried not to show it. "Okay." He said, scrambling to gather his thoughts back together. "So what have you tried so far?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Pretty much nothing."

Draco sighed. "You're hopeless." He began to pace back and forth. "Okay, what does she like to do?"

Craig looked thoughtful. "A lot of things." He finally said.

"You are hopeless." Draco replied exasperatedly. "You have to know something about her."

"I know plenty." Craig bristled.

"Then tell me something about her." Malfoy practically screamed.

"I know so many things you'll never know." Craig replied calmly. "But if it matters to you that much…"

"It does. I need somewhere to start."

"Okay. She loves Transformers and she's basically an only child." Craig leaned back, arms folded against his chest.

"That was basically useless." Malfoy commented.

Craig hesitated, and then seemed to come to a decision. "You're going to have to help me with that. I won't tell you anymore."

"Because you don't _know_ anymore." Malfoy replied sarcastically.

"I know a lot!" Craig snapped angrily. "I just don't want to share with you." He stood up and winced, putting a hand to his side.

Guilt wormed its way up Malfoy's spine. He was the one who'd caused that injury. He tried to shake the feeling away, but it stayed, clinging tightly to the back of his neck, making the area prickle. What was happening? He'd never felt guilty about hurting someone before. And he didn't even like Craig. So why was he suddenly feeling so messed up over inflicting a minor wound a that son-of-a-bitch? "Well, if you ever get desperate enough, just kiss her." The words came pouring out before he had a chance to think it over.

Craig looked sideways at him, a what-the-hell look on his face. "Excuse me?"

"I said, if you ever get desperate enough, just kiss her."

Craig turned to fully face him. "I knew that's what you said; I just can't believe you actually said it."

Malfoy shrugged. "It's a sure policy. You'll have your answer on how she feels about you."

Craig opened his mouth, then closed it. "I suppose it is." He said finally, reluctantly. "But I'm not that desperate."

"_Yet."_ Malfoy couldn't help pointing out.

Craig rolled his eyes. "If I ever get that desperate, you'll know." He said.

"Why would I? Are you going to be begging me for help?" Malfoy asked curiously.

"No." Craig suddenly looked uncomfortable. "But believe me, you'll know." He went to stretch his arms above his head, but stopped suddenly, his face grimaced in pain.

"Why didn't you tell Holly I did that?" Draco asked another question that he'd wanted to know the answer to.

"Because she's already mad at me." Craig stalked to the couch and threw his body onto it. Malfoy followed, perching on the other end of the couch.

"And telling her I hurt you sabotages your case how?"

"She'd find some way to blame it on me. I don't know how, but she'd do it." Craig didn't look at Draco as he spoke.

"She'd manage to blame 'Your boyfriend clawed me' on you?" Malfoy asked, wondering just how strong that love potion was.

"Don't say that." Craig began picking at a thread on the ugly embroidered rose-covered throw pillow.

"Say what?" Draco was confused.

"That you're her boyfriend. You're not."

"Oh." Draco was at a loss. He hadn't even really realized he'd said that. And besides, it was going to be true pretty soon.

"Are you going to ask her out?" Craig asked, suddenly eyeing Malfoy closely.

He shrugged. "Yeah, probably. I think she likes me."

Craig didn't seem satisfied with the answer. "Do you like her?"

Malfoy swallowed hard. His immediate answer was yes, which confused him. He wasn't supposed to like her. He was supposed to screw her over. "I-I-yes." He managed to stammer, head spinning. When did he develop a crush on Holly?

"This morning, at the museum." Craig replied, and Malfoy realized with a start that he'd said that out loud.

"What do you mean?"

Craig looked down at his hands. "I don't know. It was just so obvious, you know?"

Malfoy shook his head. "No, I don't know."

"That's just too bad, cause I'm not explaining it." Craig pushed himself off the couch. "Come on. We're going somewhere."

"Where?" This was quite an abrupt subject change.

Craig smirked. "To see if you've got balls."

That didn't sound so good.


End file.
